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IP. 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Ex  Lihris 

SIR  MICHAEL  SADLER 

ACQUIRED  1948 

WITH  THE  HELP  OF  ALUMNI  OF  THE 

SCHOOL  OF  EDUCATION 


SYDENHAM  H.A.HERVEY, 

WEDVIORE    VICARAGE, 
1894. 


^ 


^"T^-^dL. 


^^^-*<^  .(y^=^^^^^    x^^^**^ 


S'*<'*^Cr-rx. 


FROM     A    PH070      BY     FRADELLE    &    YOUNG,    LONDON. 


f~  ^-r  ^-^iXZ^  „^ 


SUPPLEMENT 


TO 


"NOTES  OF  MY  LIFE,"  1879, 


AND 


"MR.  GLADSTONE,"  1886. 


GEORGE   ANTHONY   DENISON, 

VICAR    OF    EAST    BRENT,    1 845  ; 
ARCHDEACON    OF   TAUNTON,    1 85 1. 


JAMES    PARKER    AND    CO. 

1893. 


PRINTED   BY   JAMES   PARKER   AND   CO. 
CROWN   YARD   OXFORD. 


PREFACE. 


MY  object  in  publishing  this  volume  is  to  humbly 
request  of  my  brethren  and  sisters  of  the 
Church  of  England  the  consideration  of  the  three 
matters  following. 

I.  The  position  and  the  prospects  of  the 
"Church"  of  England  in  its  connection 
with  the  "State"  of  England  at  the  close 
of  Century  XIX. 


2.  The  delusion  which  lies  at  the  root  of  "  The 
New  Criticism."  T/ie  dehision  comes  from 
within  the  Chiiixh. 

The  delusion  is  this — 
That  the  Authority  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  "  Perfect  God  and  Perfect  Man;" 
The  Divine  Teacher,  "  Who  hath  brought 
life  and  immortality  to  life  through  the 
Gospel  ;"  with  its  Mysteries  unsearchable 
by  the  reasoning  power;  is,  nevertheless, 
in  order  to  the  acceptance  of  such  Authority 
by  man,  subject  to  concurrence  therewith 
and  approval  thereof  on  the  part  of  "  the 
literary  critic  "  of  this  and  every  successive 
generation:  thus  reducing  belief  in  "  Holy 
Scripture"  to  a  perpetual  flux  to  the  end 
of  time. 


62310'? 


iv  PREFACE. 

Upon  this  delusion  I  submit  as  follows — 
That  the  best  and  highest  use  of  the  reason- 
ing power,  in  matters  of  its  province,  is  to 
teach  man  not  how  much  he  knows,  but 
how  little.  That  the  reasoning  power  of 
man  fallen,  though  he  be  redeemed  and 
regenerate  in  and  by  Christ,  has  to  be 
humbled  continually,  that  it  may  be  ex- 
alted ^ 
That  for  the  reasoning  power  to  so  much  as 
attempt  to  enter  into  "  The  Secret  Things 
of  God,"  which  are  not  of  its  province,  is  not 
only  not  reasonable  :  it  is  sinful.  Of  these 
"  Secret  Things "  God  has  revealed  so 
much  as  it  is  good  for  man  to  know  by  The 
Spirit,  guiding  His  Church  into  all  Truth." 

Hear  the  Teaching  of  the  Old  Scriptures.  I  cite 
here  Deut.  xxix.  29,  and  the  last  five  chapters  of 
Job  only.  Hear  the  Teaching  of  our  Lord  in  His 
Gospel.  St.  Matthew  xvlli.  1-6,  St.  Mark  ix.  33, 
St.  Luke  ix.  46,  and  xxli.  24.  Hear  St.  Paul,  1  Cor. 
xvil.  31. 

"  Little  children  keep  yourselves  from  Idols,"  is 
the  teaching  "  of  the  Apostle  whom  Jesus  loved." 

The  Idol  of  the  heathen  is  the  stock  and  the 
stone.  To  him  they  represent  a  power  above  his 
own. 

The  Idol  of  the  Christian  is  not  the  "stock"  and 
the  "stone:"  it  is  his  own  reasoning  power; 
and  he  worships  it  above  the  Giver  of  it. 

^  Prov.  i.  7,  XV.  33,  xviii.  12. 


PREFACE. 


3.  Matters  subordinate ;  but  all  of  them  of 
primary  importance  in  connection  with 
"  The  many  coloured  greatness  of  Eng- 
land."  

In  1879  I  published  "  Notes  of  My  Life,"  con- 
taining the  record  of  what  I  had,  so  far,  been  prin- 
cipally concerned  in  for  forty  years  up  to  that  time. 

I  resume  that  record  now  by  way  of  Supplement. 
Since  1879  I  had,  in  1886,  been  compelled  to 
publish  my  "  Mr.  Gladstone."  I  supplement  this 
also  now.  It  requires  no  words  of  mine  here  to 
show  the  close  connection  between  the  above 
matters  and  Mr.  Gladstone. 

As  I  understand  Mr.  Gladstone,  he  holds  what 
"  The  New  Criticism  "  rejects. 

On  the  other  hand,  he  holds  not  as  of  Divine 
Authority,  external  to  man,  but  as  of  the  outcome 
of  controversy  among  men.  If  so,  he  conforms 
to  the  principle  of  "  The  New  Criticism,"  while 
rejecting  its  conclusions.  Now  this  is  not  the 
simplicity  and  obedience  of  faith  :  it  is  the  pride 
of  reason.      In  St.  John's  language   "  the   pride  of 

life." 

Let  us  have  Grace  not  to  waste  our  little  life  in 
"  giving  heed  to  fables,  and  endless  genealogies, 
"  which  minister  questions,  rather  than  godly  edify- 
"  ing  which  is  In  faith."  i  Tim.  i.  4,  vi.  4  ;  2  Tim. 
xi.  23  ;  Titus  Hi.  9. 

It  is  not  for  us  to  build  up  in  our  "  Vanity  "  a 
Church  other  than  that  "which  is  built  upon  the 
"  foundation  of  the  Apostles  and  Prophets— Jesus 
"  Christ  Himself  being  The  Head  cornerstone." 

A   2 


vl  TREFACE. 

Neale,  of  my  most  loving  memory,  was,  with  us, 
a  great  master  of  holy  song. 

He  has  left  to  ourselves  and  our  children  his  song 
of  faith  ;  his  Hymn  for  St.  Thomas'  Day.  Among 
many  beautiful  Hymns,  I  know  nothing  more 
beautiful  ;  more  moving  in  its  grand  simplicity ; 
in  the  faith  which  believes  what  it  cannot  see ;  in 
the  hope,  "an  anchor  of  the  souP,"  which  grasps 
and  clings  to  what  it  cannot  touch. 

We  have  not  seen,  we  cannot  see, 

The  happy  land  above, 
Where  sin  and  death,  and  suffering  flee 

And  all  is  peace  and  love  : 

Its  Sun  that  never  goeth  down, 

Its  streets  of  pearl  and  gold. 
Its  blessed  saints  that  wear  the  crown 

That  never  groweth  old. 

We  only  see  the  path  is  long 

By  which  we  have  to  go  ; 
We  only  feel  the  foes  are  strong 

That  seek  to  work  us  woe. 

We  have  not  seen,  we  cannot  see, 

The  Cross  our  Master  bore, 
With  all  its  pains,  that  we  might  be 

The  devil's  slaves  no  more. 

We  only  think  it  hard  to  part 

With  very  pleasant  sin. 
And  give  to  God  a  perfect  heart, 

And  make  Him  Lord  within. 

The  Spirit's  grace  we  cannot  see, 

That  makes  an  infant  whole ; 
And  gives  the  water  power  to  free 

From  sin  a  guilty  soul. 

''  Hebr.  vi.  19. 


PREFACE.  Vll 

We  only  know  that  we  have  power 

To  do  our  Father's  will ; 
Though  every  day  and  every  hour, 

We  meet  temptation  still. 

We  walk  by  faith,  and  not  by  sight ; 

And  blessed  Saint  like  thee 
We  sometimes  doubt  if  faith  tells  right, 

Because  we  cannot  see. 

Upon  the  promise  we  would  lean 

Thy  doubting  heart  received ; — 
'^  Blessed  are  they  that  have  not  seen, 
And  that  have  yet  believed  ! ' 

Wide  as  the  Church's  voice  can  spread , 

To  God  all  glory  be  ; 
To  Him  that  is  the  Apostles'  Head, 

And,  Holy  Ghost,  to  Thee  !     Amen. 

Hymn  22'],from  the  People's  By m na /.—  Mastkks  and  Co. 


The  Volume  contains,  besides  Text,  Papers, 
Speeches,  Documents,  inserted  in  their  order  of 
time  and  connection,  conckiding  with  Six  Sermons 
preached  in  Wells  Cathedral  between  May  lo,  1891, 
and  Nov.  13,  1892. 

I  am  indebted  to  Messrs.  Fradelle  and  Young 
for  their  kind  permission  to  use  the  Photograph 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Volume. 

GEORGE    ANTHONY    DENISON. 


CONTENTS. 


SUPPLEMENT  TO  "NOTES  OF  MY   LIFE, 

1879,"  and  to  "MR.  GLADSTONE,   1886"    .   1—92 

APPENDICES. 

No.  I. 

The  National  Synod. 

A  Speech  as  prepared  for  May  Sessions  of  Con- 
vocation of  Canterbury y  i88g  .  .         95 

Analysis  of  Account  of  the  Spiritual  Element 
in  the  fudicial  Committee  of  the  Privy 
Council,  from  1832  to  the  present  time  .       119 

No.  II. 
The  Political  Heresy  and  the  Intellectual 
Heresy  of  Century  XIX.  in  England. 

The  Charge  of  the  A  rchdeacon  of  Taunton,  i8go.        1 26 

No.  III. 

Lux    MUNDI. 

A    Paper   read  at  a  Meeting  of  the  English 

Church  Union,  February  27,  i8go   .  .136 

A  Speech  before  the  Lower  House  of  Con- 
vocation, Session  February  j,  i8gi  .  .142 

A  Letter  to  His  Grace  the  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, fune,  i8gi  .  .  •  .109 

Declaration  on   the    Truth   of  Holy   Scripture, 

December  16,  i8gi    .  •  •  .175 


CONTENTS. 


No.   IV. 

The  New  Criticism. 

A   Visitation  Charge,  April  26,  i8g2 

No.  V. 

SIX    SERMONS    PREACHED    IN    WELLS 
CATHEDRAL. 


179 


1.  Lux  MUNDI. 

May  10,  i8gi. 

2.  ,,  ,, 

Aug,  p,  i8gi. 

3.  Lux    MUNDI    AND     the 

Bampton  Lecture 
OF    I  89 1. 

Nov.  8,  i8gi. 


4.  The  New  Criticism. 
Feb.  7,  i8g2. 

Aug.  7,  i8g2. 
Nov.  I  J,  i8g2. 

pp.  187—265 


ORDER   OF  THE   BOOK. 

"  Causes  of  the  many  coloured  greatness 

-of 

"  England.'' 

(a)  Primary,  the  Causes  Divine. 

(b)  Secondary,    the    Causes    Human,    in    their 

several  order  and  dependence. 


Causes  human,  which  have  been,  and  are 
progressively,  in  action  to  the  injury,  and, 
in  the  end,  to  the  decline  and  fall  of  that 


greatness. 


"  The  Many  Coloured  Greatness  of 
England y 


♦'  The  many  coloured  greatness  of  England." 
These  are  words  of  The  Times  some  years  ago  : 
on  what  occasion  I  forget :  but  they  are  fine  words, 
and  worth  recalling. 

I  will  hope  that  I  need  no  apology  for  recalling 
them,  though  it  be  done  in  a  sense  of  misgiving 
rather  than  of  the  congratulation  in  which,  if  I  re- 
member right,  the  words  were  written.  If  I  am 
unduly  magnifying  dangers,  my  words  will  answer 
themselves.  If  there  be  already  in  the  position 
of  "  Church  and  State  "  elements  not  of  fear  only 
but  of  fact,  I  shall  at  least  stand  excused  for  giving 
utterance  in  my  old  age  to  principles  and  action 
of  a  life.  I  have  differed  absolutely  from  many 
men,  but  I  do  not  recall  having  quarrelled  with 
any  man. 

The  many  coloured  greatness  of  England  has 
been  the  Creation  and  the  Gift  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence. It  has  passed  through  many  trials  and  vicis- 
situdes. It  has  survived  under  the  same  Hand 
which  gave  it.  It  survives  still  under  trial.  Whether 
it  shall  survive,  grow  and  increase  under  God,  or 
shall  fall  from  its  high  estate,  would  appear  now  to 
be  proposed  that  it  shall  be  for  the  people  of  Eng- 
land, of  all  orders  and  conditions  of  men,  to  pro- 
nounce. But  most  of  all  for  that  order  and  con- 
dition  which   is   a   large    numerical    majority,    but 

B 


which,  with  rare  exceptions,  does  not,  never  can 
know  anything,  of  the  science  of  government,  "  in- 
struct "  them  how  you  will  ;  not  even  what  is  the 
meaning  of  the  word  "  Government." 

Up  to  the  year  1832  English  Government  was  in 
the  hands  of  those  who  were  parties  to  the  Con- 
stitution, the  Sovereign,  and  the  three  Estates  of 
the  Realm,  the  Lords  Spiritual,  the  Lords  Temporal, 
and  the  Commons.  Election  to  membership  of 
House  of  Commons  was  in  the  hands  of  those 
who  might,  as  the  rule,  be  reasonably  supposed  to 
know  something  of  what  the  Constitution  of  Eng- 
land not  only  was  then,  but  is  now  :  something 
again  of  the  science,  the  practice,  and  the  purposes 
of  Government.  There  was  conflict  always  then 
between  two  parties,  now  no  longer  existing  as 
Parties,  which  of  the  two  should  hold  the  reins 
of  Government.  The  description  above  given  ap- 
plied alike  to  both  parties. 

The  impulse  to  organic  change,  the  habit  of  all 
peoples,  sooner  or  later,  according  to  the  amount 
of  what  is  called  by  us  "  Common  Sense,"  from  the 
Latin  "  Communis  Sensus,"  was  given  by  the  French 
Revolution.  The  act  of  organic  change  with  us  was 
almost,  if  not  quite,  without  blood.  England  had 
less  to  provoke,  and  much  more  common  sense  to 
restrain,  than  France  had.  But,  whatever  the  com- 
parison may  amount  to,  there  ensued  in  1832  or- 
ganic change  in  England.  Others  may  call  it  what 
they  like.  I  call  it,  both  in  itself  and  in  its  effects, 
a  Revolution. 

Now  when  this  took  place  ;  when  the  battle  of 
Europe  which  could  not  have  been  fought  at  all 
without  Endand,  and  which  was,  in  the  main,  fought 


by  England — when  the  battle  of  Europe  was  closed 
at  Waterloo,  England  had  reached  the  height  of  her 
Temporal  Greatness.  The  battle  of  Europe  had  been 
fought  and  won  by  England  with  a  third  of  her 
present  population ;  with  resources  not  to  be  com- 
pared with  her  resources  now  ;  with  an  united  king- 
dom and  not,  as  now,  a  disunited  heart. 

Further,  it  had  been  fought  when  one  of  the  two 
parties  referred  to  above  was  in  power.  That  one 
the  party  who  had — it  may  be  said — administered 
the  government  of  England  throughout  the  war. 

The  Power  of  giving  in  the  House  of  Commons 
a  preponderating  representation  of  the  Radical  ele- 
ment is  now  in  the  hands  of  those  electors  who 
know  nothing  of  the  science  of  Government ;  not 
even  what  is  meant  by  the  word  "  Government." 
England  is  very  near  reaching  the  lowest  issue ; 
that  of  universal  suffrage.  This  issue  is  one  of 
those  things  which,  once  born,  grow  and  increase 
much  faster  than  suits  those  who  have  been  most 
concerned  with  its  birth.  One  principal  account 
of  this  is,  that  men,  who  know  nothing  of  the 
Science  of  Government,  nor  even  of  what  Govern- 
ment means,  but  must,  being  men,  have  some 
reason  for  what  they  do,  though  it  be  not  fact,  nor 
truth ;  some  reason  tempting,  or  misrepresenting, 
or  both,  upon  which  to  vote ;  proceed  to  vote  upon 
such  reason  or  reasons  as  being  all  they  have  to 
vote  upon,  as  soon  as  such  reasons  are  presented 
to  their  mind. 

At  the  root  of  the  growth  and  increase  of  "  the 
many  coloured  greatness  "  there  have  lain  from  the 
first  and  lie  still,  though  not  without  signs  of  fear 

B   2 


all  about  them,  certain  primary  causes,  all  of  them 
the  Gift  of  Divine  Providence ;  but  liable  to  suffer, 
even  to  perish,  in  the  case  of  this  or  that  people, 
at  the  hands  of  man's  abuse. 

First  and  foremost  is  the  gift  of  the  early  intro- 
duction into  England  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
It  became  the  Religion  of  England.  It  was  en- 
dowed largely  by  the  nobles  and  wealthier  classes 
of  England ;  with  all  provision  and  care  for  the 
poor  of  the  land.  It  grew  upwards  with  the  native 
strength  and  power  of  the  country.  This,  in  after 
time,  re-formed.  Not,  that  is,  changed  at  all  in 
respect  of  its  Catholic  Truth  and  Substance,  and 
so  made,  by  man's  authority  dictating  to  the  Pro- 
vidence of  God,  a  "new  thing,"  in  the  vulgar 
sense  of  the  word  '  Reform,'  but,  the  old  thing 
revived,  as  given  of  God,  through  the  undivided 
Church,  by  the  Spirit,  according  to  the  promise 
of  Christ  ;  given  by  the  Spirit,  and  laid  up  in 
all  its  unapproachable  Mystery,  in  all  its  Reve- 
lation of  what  has  been  and  of  what  is  to  come, 
with  all  its  promise,  and  all  its  warning,  laid  up, 
once  for  all,  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  old  and 
the  New  Testament :  Holy  Scriptures  not  lawful  for 
a  man  to  touch  so  as  in  any  manner  or  degree  to 
impair  or  disparage  the  Divine  Integrity,  Oneness, 
and  Authority  thereof.  This  is  the  Basis  upon 
which  I  rest  my  whole  contention  in  the  matter 
Religious.  I  cannot  "contend"  upon  any  other 
Basis.  I  cannot  contend  earnestly  for  "the  one 
Faith"  of  which  I  am  a  Priest,  and,  with  the 
same  hand  and  voice,  contend  for  "opinions"  and 
"inventions^"  of  men.  I  may  not  "halt  between 
*  Eccles.  vii.  29. 


two  opinions^  "  of  what  the  "  one  Faith"  is.  I  am 
bound  by  the  most  solemn  oath  of  my  life  to  hold 
fast  by  what  the  Church  of  England  has  given  me. 
I  am  no  less  bound  by  the  same  oath  to  do  all  that 
in  me  lies  to  keep  and  to  help  others  in  and  to  that 
"  one  Faith,  one  Lord,  one  Baptism,  one  God  and 
Father  of  all :  "  to  keep  for  myself,  and  to  help  others 
to  keep,  in  and  for  the  love  of  Christ. 

There  is  a  comment  upon  language  very  common 
in  the  mouth  of  English  Church  People,  when 
speaking  of  the  position  and  the  prospects  of  the 
Church  of  England,  to  be  made  here.  They  say 
**  God  will  take  care  of  His  Church."  Doubtless, 
if  His  Church  be  faithful  to  its  Trust.  There 
is  no  promise  to  unfaithfulness.  Now  there  is 
a  Corporate  faithfulness,  and  an  individual  faith- 
fulness ;  and  before  any  one  of  us  may  comfort  him- 
self with  the  words  "  God  will  take  care  of  His 
Church,"  he  must  humbly  and  thankfully,  with 
searching  of  heart  and  mind,  find  ground  to  hope 
that  faithfulness,  both  in  respect  of  himself,  and 
of  the  Body  of  which  he  is  a  member,  is  truth  of 
fact.  I  much  fear  that  the  words  are  not  uncom- 
monly used  rather  as  shifting  from  those  who  use 
them  uneasiness  of  mind  upon  both  points  than  as 
anything  else. 

And  indeed,  if  either  the  member,  or  the  Body, 
be  striving  to  follow  after,  and  attain  to  faithfulness, 
there  will  still  not  lack  room  for  repentance,  for  time 
and  opportunities  lost,  prayer  not  made,  care  not 
taken  that  God,  having  given  in  His  Son,  by  the 

^  I  Kings  xviii.  21. 


Spirit,  to  the  Body  of  His  Son,  which  is  the  Church, 
Peace  upon  Earth  and  Life  in  Heaven,  it  has  not 
been  the  first  and  foremost  "  endeavour,"  privately, 
pubhcly,  of  life  here  "to  keep  the  Unity  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  bond  of  Peace." 

There  are  many  signs  from  within  and  from  with- 
out that,  besides  all  the  trials  which  have  come  upon 
the  Church  of  England  at  the  hands  of  herself 
and  of  the  Civil  Power  during  the  last  sixty  years, 
a  far  greater  trial  is  upon  us,  and  is  every  day 
becoming  greater  still.  What  had  been  already 
done  in  respect  of  the  Schools  and  Universities  of 
the  Church  of  England  had  issued  in  Indifferentism 
and  looseness  of  thought,  the  greatest  and  the  most 
subtle  enemies  of  true  Religion.  But  when  the 
young  men  of  a  University  and  the  people  of 
England  generally  are  invited  from  within  to  be- 
lieve in  so  much  only  of  the  old  Scriptures  as 
they  are  willing  to  accept,  on  the  understand- 
ing that  they  are  not  asked  to  believe  in  so 
much  as  they  are  not  willing  to  accept ;  and  when, 
in  order  to  override  and  supersede  the  testimony 
of  our  Lord  Himself  to  the  Truth  of  all  the 
Old  Scriptures,  there  is  assigned  to  Him  such 
limited  knowledge  only  of  them  and  of  their  history 
as  any  Jew  might  have,  the  axe  has  been  laid  to  the 
root  of  the  tree.  It  is  ready  to  be  cut  down  and 
cast  into  the  fire.  If  "science,  falsely  so  called,"  is 
to  be  the  judge  of  the  Mysteries  of  God;  if 
"philosophy"  in  respect  of  the  same  Mysteries, 
and  therein  a  **vain  deceit,"  is  to  take  to  itself  the 
chair  of  the  Simplicity  of  Faith  ;  if  these  things 
are  to  be  the  food  of  the  English  heart  and  mind. 


then  certainly  no  greater  blow  remains  to  be  dealt 
from  ivithin  the  Church  of  England  upon  the 
many  coloured  greatness  of  England.  The  Synod 
of  the  Province  says  no  word — will  not  so  much 
as  grant  an  enquiry  into  charges  alleged — the 
Voluntary  Body,  first  forming  itself  in  1845,  when 
there  was  no  Synod,  to  supply,  so  far  as  it  was 
possible  for  a  voluntary  body,  the  Synod's  place, 
refuses  in  1892  to  say  a  word  even  of  regret;  and 
assigns  as  its  reason  that  the  Synod  has  said  nothing. 
It  was  formed  to  come,  so  far  as  it  might,  into 
the  Synod's  room  to  help  the  faithful.  When  the 
Synod  has  come,  and  is  not  itself  faithful,  the 
Voluntary  Body  uses  the  fault  of  the  Synod  to 
hide  its  own  fault;  and  stultifies  its  own  raison 
d  ^etre  '^. 

The  Element  of  the  many  coloured  greatness 
of  England  which  is  next  in  the  order  of  Gifts 
Divine  to  the  early  introduction  into  England  of 
the  Church  of  Christ,  is  what  is  conveyed  under 
the  watchword  *  Church  and  King,'  '  Church  and 
Queen,'  *  Church  and  State.'  The  Church  of 
Christ  is  not  only  the  Church  in  England :  it 
is  the  Church  of  England.  It  is  the  Church 
of  the  Sovereign  and  of  the  People  of  England. 
Accordingly  the  Constitution  of  England  is  that 
the  Sovereign  be  a  Communicant  of  the  Church 
of  England :  that  the  Convocations  or  Synods 
of  the  two  Provinces  of  Canterbury  and  York 
be  the  advisers,  severally  or  conjointly,  of  the 
Crown  in  matters  Spiritual.     The  Houses  of  Lords 

*=  See  below,  pp.  60 — 63. 


8 

and  Commons  in  matters  Temporal.  The  King, 
or  Queen,  and  the  three  Estates  of  England, 
the  Lords  Spiritual,  the  Lords  Temporal,  and  the 
Commons,  are  the  Legislature  of  England.  The 
Clergy  may  not  sit  in  the  Commons  House  of 
Parliament.  The  Bishops  sit  as  Barons  in  the 
House  of  Lords.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  is, 
next  in  order  after  the  Princes  of  the  Blood,  the 
first  Peer  of  Parliament.  The  Union  of  the  Tem- 
poral Power  with  the  Spiritual  Power  in  this  order 
is  the  Union  of  '  Church  and  State.' 

But  it  is  said  Unity  of  the  Religion  of  Christ 
is  an  Idea  only,  not  a  fact.  We  are  bidden  to 
look  at  the  innumerable  and  sharp  differences  of 
Religion  in  England  outside  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. To  look  at  the  differences  inside  the  Church 
of  England.  Unity  of  Religion  between  Sovereign 
and  People  is  not  a  fact ;  it  is  an  Idea.  Well,  let 
this  be  granted  freely,  unreservedly.  If  what  the 
world  has  got  to  live  upon  be  fads  only  and  not  Ideas, 
then  indeed  it  must  be  conceded  that  it  is  a  miserable 
world.  But  the  Mercy  of  God  in  Christ  has  not 
so  willed.  He  has  Qriven  it  to  His  Creature  Man  for 
Christ's  sake  to  rejoice  under  all  sense  of  pain  and 
distress,  under  fear  of  death  itself,  to  find  comfort, 
to  find  joy  in  the  Idea  of  perfectness  for  Christ's 
sake,  by  the  Spirit.  If  this  most  marvellous  Gift 
of  God  be  marred  in  Man's  hand,  is  it  the  Gift  that 
is  imperfect  ?  Man,  even  though  he  be  regenerate, 
born  aofain,  and  become  a  new  Creature  in  Christ 
by  the  Spirit,  retains  so  much  of  the  Fall  that  in 
touching  the  things  of  God — more  particularly  the 
secret  things  of  God — and  bringing  them,   as  he 


thinks,  nearer  to  himself  and  within  his  reasoning 
power,  mars  the  beauty  and  perfectness  of  what 
he  touches  by  what  St.  John  calls  the  'pride  of 
life; 

If  there  be  many  Religions  amongst  us,  does  that 
go  to  prove  that  there  is  not  one  true  Religion  of 
Christ,  even  as  there  is  only  one  Christ  ?  Is  it  not 
true  that  every  Body  separating  itself  from  the 
Catholic  Church  of  Christ  does  this  on  the  ground 
that  the  one  true  Religion  is  found  in  that  particular 
Body  of  which  he  is  a  member  either  by  birth  and 
teaching,  or  by  any  other  man's  influence  over  him  ? 
Thus  every  kind  of  Nonconformity  bears  testimony 
to  the  Idea  of  Oneness  of  Faith  by  the  act  of  the 
Non-conformity  itself. 

The  Church  of  England  prays  in  her  Prayer  for 
the  Church,  Militant  here  upon  Earth,  that  all 
Bishops  and  Curates  may  have  grace  to  set  forth 
both  by  their  life  and  doctrine  the  true  and  lively 
Word,  and  rightly  and  duly  administer  the  Holy 
Sacraments  :  this  is  the  sum  of  the  prayer  offered 
for  them.  Both  in  those  who  set  forth  and  ad- 
minister, and  in  those  who  hear,  see,  obey,  there 
may  be  as  many  degrees,  as  there  are  souls,  of  the 
measure  and  manner  of  such  perfectness  as  may  be 
had  here.  But  their  Unity  of  Faith  is  not  broken 
thereby.  The  Idea  of  the  Gift,  the  Gift  itself,  is 
always  the  same,  according  as  God  sees  fit  to  be- 
stow it.  The  end  is  laid  up  with  God.  There  is 
nothing  for  those  who  serve  and  wait  in  the  imper- 
fect Unity  of  this  World  but  to  keep  ever  recalling 
each  one  to  his  own  soul  the  holy  call  to  Charity. 
"In  lowliness  of  mind  let  each  esteem  other  better 


lO 


than  themselves;"  that  is,  nearer  to  the  idea  of  the 
perfectness  which  is  of  Christ. 

The  one  Basis  then,  the  Unity  of  the  Faith, 
stands  fast  unto  the  end  of  time,  ahke  whether 
man  confess  or  reject  it,  "whether  he  will  hear 
or  whether  he  will  forbear"^."  '  The  true  and  lively 
Word,'  '  the  Holy  Sacraments,'  are  the  Gift  of 
Christ  unto  Life  eternal.  Man  may  not  alter,  add 
to  or  take  away  one  letter  of  their  Substance.  They 
are  committed  by  God  to  the  keeping  and  the 
ministration  of  the  Bishops  and  Curates  of  the 
Church  of  England.  What  the  responsibility  of 
Bishop  and  of  Curate  is  certainly  no  words  of  man, 
it  may  be  no  thought  of  man,  can  measure  on  this 
side  the  grave. 

It  is  the  proof  of  what  remaineth  in  us  of 
"  the  infection  of  our  nature,  though  we  be  re- 
generate in  Holy  Baptism ; "  and  of  the  per- 
petual conflict  between  the  pride  of  self-will,  and 
consequent  rejection  of  authority  of  the  Church, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  humble  and  implicit 
acceptance  of  the  Revelation  of  God  in  Holy 
Scripture  on  the  other,  with  all  its  unapproachable 
Mystery  as  committed  to  the  Church  to  be  delivered 
unto  the  end  of  time,  that  England,  with  all  her 
wonderful  Gifts  and  Blessings,  has  failed  to  be  any- 
thing but  a  most  imperfect  example  of  Oneness  of 
Faith  in  Christ.  In  this  failure,  the  causes  of 
which  are  to  be  found  not  only  without  the  Church, 
but  also  perhaps  even  more  within  the  Church,  by 
the    rule   that  where  there  are  the  highest   gifts, 

"*  Ezek,  ii.  5. 


II 

there  are  the  highest  duties  and  responsibilities, 
"  The  Compassions  of  God  fail  not ;"  and  England 
is  still,  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  Century  of 
Redemption,  a  People  of  which  the  Constitution 
and  order  of  Government  answer  aloud  to  *  Church 
and  King,'  *  Church  and  Queen,'  '  Church  and 
State.' 

The  connection  between  the  aspect  Moral  and 
Religious  and  the  aspect  Political  in  England  is 
very  close ;  and  is  now  a  matter  of  deepest  and 
growing  anxiety  to  the  English  Churchman.  I 
say  this  because  of  the  continually  increasing  hos- 
tile element  inside  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
because  of  the  general  looseness  of  thought  above 
referred  to,  and  every  day  developing  itself  more 
largely  in  respect  of  Truth  of  Religion.  I  am  not 
speaking  of  the  two  principal  orders  of  Belief  which 
have  their  place  in  the  Church  of  England  since 
the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century.  I  am 
speaking  of  the  whole  body  of  the  Church  of 
England  when  I  use  the  term  *  looseness  of  thought.' 
And  if  I  were  asked  to  give  account  of  what  I 
mean  by  '  looseness  of  thought,'  I  should  say  the 
temper  of  mind  which  does  not  accept  '  Holy 
Scripture '  itself,  in  its  integrity,  as  delivered  accord- 
ing to  the  promise  of  Christ,  by  the  undivided 
Church  to  the  Church  Catholic  of  England  as  the 
one  authoritative  Guide  for  English  Church  people  ; 
and  this,  as  declared  and  expounded  to  English 
Church  people  in  "  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments "  and  the 
"  Articles  of  Religion ;"  but  accepts  "  Holy  Scrip- 
ture" only  as  subordinate  to  every  man's  private 


12 

judgment,  or  to  that  of  some  other  person. — In  one 
word,  that  there  is  no  Rule  of  Faith  at  all.  This 
is  the  edict  which  is  going  forth  day  by  day  from 
the  University  of  Oxford  to  all  orders  and  con- 
ditions of  men  in  England  as  the  great  discovery 
of  the  close  of  Century  XIX.  Does  its  accept- 
ance and  the  conformity  to  it  leave  any  room  for 
the  name  and  profession  of  "  the  English  Church- 
man ? "  I  submit  that  it  does  not.  Every  one 
in  and  governed  by  such  circumstances  is  no 
Churchman,  save  in  name  only.  Every  man  is 
his  own  Church,  or  the  Church  of  some  other 
man  to  whose  guiding  he  has  committed  himself. 
"  English  Churchman "  is  fast  losing  its  place 
amongst  us  by  the  opening  of  the  door,  once  more 
at  close  of  nineteenth  Century  of  Redemption,  to 
"  What  is  Truth  ?  "  as  asked  by  Pilate. 

There  are  two  principal  aspects  of  this  posi- 
tion of  the  Church  of  England — the  mental  and 
the  formal.  The  first  of  these  I  have  stated 
briefly. 

The  formal  aspect  consists  in  the  lack  of  any 
Corporate  Defence  and  maintenance  of  The  Faith 
of  the  Church  of  England  on  the  part  of  The  Body 
of  the  Church  of  England — that  is  by  its  Synods 
several  or  collective.  There  may  be  much  sound 
Controversy  on  the  Catholic  side.  But  this  has  no 
public  Authority ;  our  Lord  has  marked  the  differ- 
ence to  us.  He  says  "  tell  it  to  the  Church  "  as  the 
final  authority.  But  English  People  do  not  "  tell 
it  to  the  Church;"  or,  if  they  do,  "the  Church" 
hears  them  tell  it  and  lays  what  is  told  upon  the 
shelf.     In  other  words,  the  Synod  of  the  Province, 


13 

in  which  a  Book  directly  in  contradiction  to  Holy 
Scripture,  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and 
Administration  of  the  Sacraments  and  the  Articles 
of  Religion  has  been  published,  and  is  brought 
before  them,  as  to  be  enquired  of  before  them 
and  pronounced  upon,  refuses  to  act. 

It  had  been  the  increasing  prospect  of  this  laying 
upon  the  shelf  on  the  part  of  the  Synod  or  Convo- 
cation of  the  Province  of  Canterbury  that  prevailed 
with    me  to    ask   attention   to    the    necessity   of  a 
National  Synod  under  the  continually  multiplying 
of  causes  for   its  authoritative    declaration  of  the 
Faith  ;    and   for    its    warning    to    Members    of  the 
Church  of  England  against  being  seduced  from  the 
Faith  of  the  Church  of  England.     Many  subjects  of 
comparatively  inferior  moment  interfered  for  some 
time  with  my  opportunity  of  bringing  the  matter 
before  the  House,  and  it  was  delayed  till  the  pub- 
lication of  *'Lux    Mundi,"    Nov.    1889,   called   me 
away  from  it  to  the  attempt  to  pray  the  attention  of 
the  Synod  to  the  new  and  immediate  danger.     Upon 
this,  I  withdrew  my  notice  touching  the  National 
Synod ;    proposing    to    wait    for    my   opportunity 
therein ;    and    endeavoured    to   deal    at    once    with 
the  particular  matter  of  greatest  fear  before  us. 

I  failed  in  this,  and  need  not  here  further  recur 
to  it ;  all  sad  to  me  as  it  is  in  not  allowing  me  to 
take  any  more  part  in  the  proceedings  of  Con- 
vocation. 

I  reprint  in  this  volume  the  speech  I  had  prepared 
in  the  matter  of  a  National  Synod",  with  documents 
of  much  interest  annexed. 

e  See  Appendix,  No.  I. 


Our  Lord  has  taught  us  in  a  manner  which  no 
misinterpretation  of  "  Hterary  Criticism"  can  touch. 
He  has  taught  us  all,  more  particularly  the  "literary," 
the  "scientific,"  the  "philosophical"  man,  that,  in 
His  sight,  we  are  all  "little  children  ;"  as  the  little 
Child  before  its  Parent.  This  represents  to  us  the 
primary  value  of  Simplicity  of  Faith ^,  and  of  our  utter 
helplessness  apart  from  it.  How  that  without  it  we 
are  as  "  ever  learning,  and  never  able  to  come  to  the 
Knowledge  of  The  Truth." 

The  propensity  of  the  English  mind  to  doubt 
about  God  and  His  Providence  is  evidenced  by 
the  fact  that  Hobbes  and  Herbert — next  after 
Socinus,  and  before  Spinoza,  in  point  of  time — were 
the  two  leaders  of  the  modern  heresies  of  Europe. 
Their  teachings  passed  through  France  into  Ger- 
many, and  have  been,  and  are  being  repaid  very 
largely  with  compound  interest. 

Atheism  and  Deism  are  shadows  rather  than 
substance.  Reason-worship,  the  parent  of  all  here- 
sies from  Gen.  iii.  i — 6  to  the  end  of  time,  is  sub- 
stance. I  have  had  for  fifty  years  to  contend  against 
it  in  the  "  Hampden,"  "  Essays  and  Reviews,"  and 
Colenso  cases.  I  moved  in  Convocation  for  Com- 
mittees in  the  last  two  cases,  and  was  Chairman 
of  both.  I  have  done  what  I  could  to  expose  the 
delusions  of  "the  New  Criticism."  I  repeat  that 
it  is  fuller  of  cause  for  fear  than  all  preceding  it. 

In  1879  I  published  3rd  Ed.  of  "Notes  of  my 
Life."  In  1886  I  published  8th  Ed.  of  "Mr. 
Gladstone." 

f  S.  Matt.  xvii.  20,  21,  xviii.  i — 7. 


15 

The  substance  of  "  Notes  of  my  Life "  is  a  re- 
sume I.  of  the  history  from  1840  to  1879  of  the 
exchange  of  the  Parish  School,  the  nursery  of  the 
Parish  Church,  for  the  State  school  of  all  relio-ions. 
and  of  none :  of  the  Commission  of  the  Parish  Priest 
and  his  authority  invaded  thereby  :  of  this  invasion 
enforced  by  the  Civil  Power  making  grants  to  the 
Church  School  out  of  the  Common  Taxes  conditional 
upon  submission  to  the  scheme  of  "  State  Educa- 
tion." The  proposers  could  not  get  rid  of  the 
network  of  the  Parish  Schools ;  and  so  devised 
the  plan  of  "  reforming  "  them. 

2.  Of  the  doctrinal  aspects  of  the  Church  of 
England  for  the  same  time.  Of  my  trial  1854 — 
1858  in  the  matter  of  "the  Real  Presence."  I 
refer  in  pp.  82-4  to  my  book,  1861,  on  "Church 
Rate,  a  National  Trust."  Of  various  proceedings 
in  Convocation  from  1852,  Essays  and  Reviews; 
Dr.  Colenso ;  Ritualism. 


.For  the  Home  Politics  of  England,  1832 — 1892, 
they  have  all  of  them  the  downward  step  in  re- 
spect of  the  science,  the  order  and  the  stability 
of  Government 

Tory  Whig 

Conservative  Liberal  Unionist 

Liberal  Conservative  Radical. 

Mr.  Gladstone  stands  now  upon  the  Radical 
Ground — or,  upon  what  he  prefers  to  call  "  The 
great  Liberal  Party."  The  two  last  steps  are 
universal  Suffrage   and   the  Radical.      These   last 


i6 

are  not  yet  taken,  but  are  coming  into  sight,  how- 
ever he  may  disclaim  them.  We  have  forced 
upon  us  already  what  the  present  amount  is.  It  is 
only  those  whom  it  does  not  suit  to  see  it  who  dis- 
claim the  seeinor.  We  have  before  us  the  break- 
ing  up  the  home  Empire  of  England.  The  sever- 
ance in  England,  Wales,  Scotland,  as  already  in 
Ireland,  of  "  Church  and  State."  These  are  the 
legacies  of  1832,  as  1832  was  of  the  Revolution  in 
France,  but  without  the  provocation  and  the  blood  ; 
to  say  nothing  of  the  door  opening  to  the  Invader, 
whosoever,  or  how  many  soever,  it  shall  be  of  the 
enviers  and  the  enemies  of  England.  This  is  the 
inheritance  that  Red  Radical  Policy  is  welcoming 
for  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  in  old  England. 

In  my  old  age  I  try  to  forecast  the  issue  from 
1892  downwards.  I  should  be  something  less  un- 
happy than  I  am  if  I  had  not  always  before  me 
a  very  general  Indifferentism  touching  Religion;  an 
all-pervading  and  insatiable  love  of  amusement; 
the  love  of  employment  and  work  well  and  truly 
done  decaying.  The  labourer,  especially  the  agri- 
cultural labourer,  becoming  more  and  more  above 
his  work,  and  fast  disappearing  throughout  the 
country ;  and  this  not  so  much  by  his  fault,  as 
that  of  his  untrue  training ;  and  finally,  and 
above  all,  among  the  wise  and  learned  men  of  the 
world,  the  claim  of  "  the  literary  Critic "  of  every 
successive  generation  to  settle  what  portions  of 
Holy  Scripture  are  of  Divine  Authority  and  what 
are  not;  to  settle  how  mAich  Authority  is  to  be 
conceded  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sealing  the 
Old  Scriptures  with   His  own  seal;  claims  issuing 


17 

in  the  confounding  the  mind  and  inciting  to  dis- 
belief in  "all  Holy  Scripture"  among  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men  ;  taking  away  their  one  com- 
fort of  hope  in  a  life  of  heavy  trials,  and  giving 
them  nothing  in  its  room  because  there  is  nothino- 
to  give.  If  learning,  science,  art,  money-making, 
amusement  could  satisfy  the  life  of  threescore  years 
and  ten,  and  free  from  the  sting  of  conscience  and 
from  fear  of  what  shall  come  after  it,  there  had  been 
no  need  of  a  Revelation,  with  its  unapproachable 
mysteries,  with  its  Incarnation  and  its  Atonement, 
its  promise  and  its  warning.  Anything,  under  what- 
ever pretext  it  may  come,  that  tends  to  weaken 
the  Power  of,  or  discourage  the  Reverence  for,  that 
Revelation,  is  a  sin  against  God  and  Man. 

II.  The  substance  of  my  Mr.  Gladstone  is  the 
showing  that  nothing  has  been  or  is  allowed  to 
interfere  with  his  motto — "  I  am  the  only  man  who 
can  govern  England." 

Now,  if  in  room  of  "govern"  you  substitute 
"  revolutionise,"  you  make  the  motto  a  present 
truth.  Mr.  Gladstone  is  the  one  man,  now  of  the 
"  Great  Liberal  Party,"  including  amongst  its  ele- 
ments the  Red  Radical,  who  could  have  succeeded  in 
placing  that  Party  on  the  right  side  of  the  Speaker's 
Chair.  It  is  only  silliness  to  point  to  any  other  man  : 
to  any  one  again,  who  could  have  come,  or  can 
come,  into  his  room.  It  is  in  this  that  consists  the 
one  prospect  of  some  abiding  possession  by  the 
Party  in  possession  now.  The  Sections — no  one 
Section  of  the  Party  dare  rebel,  because,  however 
it  may  groan  under  the  yoke,  it  knows  well  that  if 

c 


it  did   rebel   the  position  on   the   right  side  of  the 
Speaker's    Chair    is    gone   from    them.     They    will 
therefore  swallow    any   dose,    however    bitter,    that 
Mr.    Gladstone    may    prescribe    for    them.      How 
long    this    may    last    no    man    can    say.      Probably 
not  very  long  ;   Revolutionists  are  hungry  folk.    But 
it  will  do  to  play  with  for  the  present,  inasmuch  as 
it  is  the  one  Security  in  the  Red  Radical  Treasury. 
Mr.  Gladstone  then  for  the  time  has  fulfilled  to 
himself  his   own   promise.      He  is  "  the  only  man 
w^ho  can  govern  England."    What  is  coming  after 
him,  the  sequel  of  his  continual  descent,  is  the  Red 
R.adical,   unless  it  may  be  the   English  people   re- 
sume that  character  of  "common  sense"  which  is 
now    under   hiding,    if  it    still    exists.      "  Common 
Sense"  has  become  a  very  uncommon  thing  amongst 
us.     If  it  take  the  Red  Radical  into  its  confidence 
in    proposing    to   dispose   of   "  the    many    coloured 
greatness  of  England,"  there  is  no  more  to  be  said. 
Things  look  very  like  it.     And  indeed,  if  England 
is  content  to  place  in  the  hands  of  those  who  know 
the  least  about  all   that  makes  men  capable  judges 
of  those  they  would  have  to  represent  them  in  Par- 
liament, it  not  being  in  man's  nature  to  act  without 
something  in  the  shape   of  a  reason  true  or  false ; 
then  in  the  lack  of  anything  of  true  weight  in  their 
minds  upon   which   to   act   they  fall   an   easy   prey 
before    the    first    fiction,  however   absurd    or  mon- 
strous, which  is  poured  into  their   ears.     The  late 
Election  will  have  its  historic  character  for  many 
reasons — one  of  them  is  the  unprecedented  use  of 
fiction    in    place    of    fact    which     has    pervaded    it 
throughout.      This  tells  its  own  story. 


Mr.  Gladstone  has  very  lately  issued  his  conclu- 
sion following.     These  things  keep  dribbling  out  to 
keep  one  section  or  other  of  his  supporters   alive. 
His  conclusion  is  that  Religious  Equality  is  the  thing 
to  be  contended  for.     It  is  difficult  to  adjust  to  Mr. 
Gladstone's  own  Churchmanship  what  he  means  by 
Religious  Equality.     But  difficulties  in  understand- 
ing Mr.  Gladstone  are  things  of  every  day  occurrence. 
And  this,  if  well  considered,  is  the  chief  secret  of 
his  power  over  men.     It  may  seem  a  paradox,  but 
it  is  true,  when  combined   with   his   power  of  lan- 
guage.     Men  listen  to  him  in  huge  crowds — they 
find  him  talking  as  they  have  not  been  used  to  hear 
other  men  talk  about  matters  they  know  something 
of,   but    nothing   like    what    he    knows.      All    of  a 
sudden,  in   his   own   magnificent  language,  he  gets 
upon  grounds  they  know  nothing  of,  and  they  say  to 
themselves.  What  a  man  this  is  !    He  knows  all  about 
things  we  know  something   of   many   times  better 
than  we  do.     We  may  be  sure  he  knows  everything 
about    matters    we    know    nothing    of.       There    is 
nobody  like  him.     We  must  go  with  him  whether 
we  like  it  or  not.     This  is  the  impulse  of  the  big 
meeting.     With  those  who  know   more  it  has  not 
the  same  power — ^often  the  quite  contrary  power. 

But  so  far  as  this  we  shall  agree — Religious 
Equality  within  its  Province  is  an  essential  to  the 
Enoflishman.  What  then  is  its  Province  ?  Its 
Province  is  so  far  as  the  Law  of  the  land  applies 
to  it.  In  the  eye  of  the  Law  all  are  to  be  dealt 
with  alike.  Churchmen  and  Nonconformists. 

But  when  in  helping  the  Nonconformist  the  Law 
robs  the  Churchman,  this  is  not  equality,  but  usurp- 

c  2 


20 


ation.  I  go  back,  by  way  of  illustration,  to  an  earlier 
part  of  my  Contention  against  the  Civil  Power. 
It  is  the  fact  of  such  usurpation  which  has  been  the 
ground  upon  which  from  1847  to  1892  I  have  been 
compelled  to  refuse  to  have  anything  to  do  with 
what  is  called  "  Education "  in  the  hands  of  the 
Civil  Power.  I  have  said  all  along,  by  all  means 
let  Government  assist  out  of  the  common  taxes 
the  Education  of  Roman  Catholic  and  Noncon- 
formist children  as  it  assists  the  children  of  the 
Church  of  E no-land. 

But,  what  Government  has  done  is  not  this. 
Government  for  the  last  forty-five  years  has  pos- 
sessed itself  of  the  Parish  Schools  of  the  Church  of 
England  by  way  of  invasion,  and  has  turned  them 
into  schools  of  all  denominations,  or  no  denomina- 
tion, for  Secular  Education,  on  the  strength  of  hold- 
ing the  purse  out  of  which  all  grants  come.  Now  the 
Parish  School  is  the  nursery  of  the  Parish  Church, 
and  therefore,  in  its  proper  and  essential  character, 
is  for  the  baptized  in  the  faith  of  the  Church  of 
England  only,  with  those  preparing  to  be  baptized. 
The  Government  says  '  no.'  If  you  are  to  have  a 
grant  you  must  admit  any  and  every  child  under  the 
Conscience  Clause,  no  matter  whether  baptized  or 
not.  The  Parish  School,  a  place  of  a  particular  and 
definite  religious  character  under  the  Incumbent  of 
the  place,  is  sacrificed  to  the  uses  of  the  Noncon- 
formist, and  has  stamped  upon  it  as  its  main  feature 
and  use  the  character  of  a  place  for  Secular  Instruc- 
tion. The  "  Religious  Lesson  "  to  the  children  of 
the  Church  is  a  thing  of  half  an  hour,  like  a  lesson 
in  summing.      I  say  this  is  not  Religious  Equality. 


21 

It  is  a  robbery  to  suit  the  Nonconformist  at  the 
cost  of  the  Churchman.  It  is  a  vital  change  of  the 
character  of  the  Parish  School  under  "  The  Con- 
science Clause"  at  the  cost  of  the  Church. 

"  Conscience  Clause  "  has  done  its  work  of  trans- 
mutation at  the  expense  of  Church  Truth  and  order. 
The  Church  submitted  to  it  in  an  evil  hour,  and 
is  paying  the  cost.  The  recollection  of  it  is  revived 
now  and  then  after  a  ludicrous  fashion.  A  Church 
parent  does  not  send  his  child  to  the  school  of  his 
district  because  he  is  not  satisfied  with  the  Indif- 
ferentism  of  the  school.  He  is  summoned — he 
pleads  his  Conscience  as  an  English  Churchman. 
The  answer  is  that  he  must  either  send  his  child 
or  be  fined  for  not  sending  him.  This  is  now  what 
the  Churchman  gets  for  having  a  Conscience  at  the 
hands  of  the  Law.  Conscience  Clause  has  done 
the  work  it  was  wanted  to  do.  It  is  become  incon- 
venient when  urged  by  the  Churchman  on  behalf 
of  his  child  ;  and  is  laid  upon  the  shelf  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Council  on  "  Education,"  as  no  lono-er 
wanted. 

I  recall  here  (see  "  Notes  of  my  Life,"  pp.  330-2), 
how,  in  1866,  Samuel  Wilberforce,  Bishop  of  Oxford, 
who,  with  my  brother  Edward,  then  Bishop  of  Salis- 
bury, were  in  1847  and  after  it,  my  chief  oppo- 
nents in  respect  of  Conscience  Clause  and  its 
issues,  came  to  the  conclusion,  and  told  me  so  him- 
self, that,  in  iS^y,  I  had  been  in  the  right;  and 
then  and  there  proposed  to  act  ivith  me  7pon  the  basis 
that  rather  than  accept  the  terms  of  the  Temporal 
Power,  the  Spiritual  Power  must  submit  to  give  np 
its  share  of  the  Education  Grant. 


22 

In  resuming  my  discussion  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 
public  life,  up  to  1886,  I  know  well  that  I  shall  get 
little  credit  for  being  even  more  sorry  now  than  I 
was  then  for  having  to  say  what  I  am  going  to  say. 
The  sum  of  this  is  that  he  is,  down  to  the  time  in 
which  I  write,  identified  with  all  the  steps  of  the 
downward  move  in  English  Politics  which  is 
steadily  on  its  way  to  the  ruin  of  the  Consti- 
tution of  England  in  Church  and  State.  And,  as 
my  sorrow  is  a  fact  which  touches  me  very  nearly 
privately  and  publicly,  I  take  leave  to  state  it. 

Mr.  Gladstone,  both  before  and  after  we  ceased 
not  only  to  agree  in  Politics,  but  after  my  attempt 
to  turn  him  out  of  his  seat  for  Oxford  in  1852,  and 
even  after  I  succeeded  in  setting  on  foot  con- 
clusively, when  it  was  all  but  wrecked,  the  move 
which  issued  in  turning  him  out  in  1866 — ("  Notes 
of  My  Life,"  3rd  ed.,  pp.  335-8) — has,  throughout, 
been  personally  most  kind  to  me.  It  would  be  out 
of  place  for  me  to  add  a  word  about  his  extra- 
ordinary intellectual  and  oratorical  power,  his  at- 
tractiveness, his  power  of  fascination.  All  this  and 
more  than  this  has  been  done  better  far  than  I 
could  do  it.  The  fact  remains  that  he  is  identified 
with,  and  is  the  leader  of,  men  whose  object  is  to 
revolutionise  the  Home  Empire  of  England,  and  to 
dethrone  the  Church  of  England  from  its  Constitu- 
tional position  in  Church  and  State.  I  must  try,  as 
concisely  as  I  can,  to  trace  the  successive  steps  to 
this  issue. 

Meantime  I  would  observe  that  there  is  a  fallacy 
which  besets  those  men  in  highest  power,  who  are 
content  to  proceed   much   more   upon   "  opportun- 


ism ;"  that  is  upon  the  pohcy  which  will,  for  the 
time,  best  conduce  to  the  retaining  of  power,  than 
upon  the  first  principles  of  Government  of  men.  It 
is  the  fallacy  of  "  cedendo  impera."  This  fallacy 
may  succeed  in  small  matters,  but  is  always  a  thing 
dangerous  to  play  with  :  and,  when  applied  to  the 
primary  principles  of  a  Nation's  Life,  cannot  be 
distinguished  from  the  Revolutionary  basis  and 
issue.  As  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  Gladstone  has  eiven 
way  continuously  before  the  storm  ;  has  made  him- 
self a  party  to  it ;  is  the  author  of  the  phrase, 
"  The  great  Liberal  party,"  the  child  of  his  adop- 
tion ;  without  discrimination  of  its  many  compo- 
nent, and  ultimately  irreconcilable  elements ;  has 
been  carried  away  by  it  :  is  now  about  to  let  it 
loose ;  and,  with  all  its  numberless  discordant 
devouring  and  devastating  claims,  still  proposes 
to  sTuide  and  grovern  it.  I  cannot  look  to  live  to 
see  the  cumulative  issue.  But  that  it  is  surely  on 
its  way  this  is  what  is  present  to  thousands  of  the 
English  People  day  and  night.  And  not  a  hun- 
dred Gladstones  could  now  ever  guide  much  less 
control  it. 

It  is  an  ill  return  to  make  to  the  Providence  of 
God  in  the  merciful  preservation  of  the  United 
Kingdom  ;  more  particularly  for  the  Reign  of  Queen 
Victoria ;  a  Reign,  in  respect  of  the  Person  of  the 
Sovereis^n,  lackincr  in  nothing  that  commands  the 
love  and  respect  of  the  United  Kingdom,  of  all 
other  English  Dominions,  and  I  may  add  of  all 
other  Nations.  Well,  what  is  the  crowning  fact  of 
the  time  ?  Is  it  not  that  in  that  Reign  it  is  pro- 
posed by  the  first   Minister  of  the  Crown   to  dis- 


24 

unite   the   United    Kingdom  ?    To   attempt  a  con- 
joint Government  of  England   and   Ireland.     The 
attempt   may  be  a  clever  or  a   clumsy  device  for 
regaining  power;    but  it  has  been  breaking  down 
ever  since  it  was  conceived,  and  has  all  along  been 
an   illusion,   because   of  the  impossibility  of  recon- 
ciling two  Governments,  when  the  real  claim  of  one 
of  them  is  that  of  substantial  independence,  and  the 
claim  of  the  other  supreme  control.     Ireland  may 
well  be  said  to  have  a  right  to  the  warmest  interest 
and  the  most  careful  consideration  of  England,  but 
she  has  no  claim  to  rule  herself.      May  I   not  say 
more  ?     May  I   not  say,  and  say  truly,  that  she  has 
a  rio-ht  to  more  than  the  warmest  interest  and  most 
careful  consideration  of  England  ;  the  right  of  wrong 
to  be  acknowledged  and  repaired  ;  the  right  of  in- 
juries done  to  be  confessed  and  deplored.     But  has 
"Home  Rule"  anything  belonging  to  it  in  which 
there  is  so  much  as  a  shadow  of  even  one  of  such 
feeHngs,  convictions,  actions  ?    There  is  nothing  of 
this   nature   appertaining    to    it.      Nay,    every   part 
of  the    pursuit    of    it    entails    aggravation    of  the 
greatest  miseries  of  Ireland,   furious   hate,   rapine, 
blood  ;  within,  disunion  irreconcilable,  without,  not 
closer  union  with,  but  every  seed  of  severance  from 
England.     The  many  enemies  of  England  encour- 
ao-ed  as  they  have  never  been  before.      Everything 
sacrificed   to  the  recovery    of  one    man's   power — 
everything  lost  to  England,  to  Scotland,  to  Wales — 
everything    most    helping    to   the    downfall   of   the 
Empire  of  England,  to  the  blotting  out  of  its  great 
place  in  the  world.     This  is  the  inheritance  coming 
of  the  vain  attempt  to  fuse  into  one  the  irreconcil- 


25 

able  elements  of  "  the   Great  Liberal   Party,"  that 
Mr.  Gladstone  may  sit  once   more  upon  the  right 
hand  of  the  Speaker's  Chair,  and  be  "  the  one  man 
who    can    govern    England."       Look    at    the    re- 
verse   of    the    picture.      Ireland    has    been    cared 
for  truly,    kindly   and   with   true   success.      In  the 
last   few    years  very  much  has  been    done.     Now 
in    some    two    months    of  a  change   in   the    hands 
which  hold  the  reins  of  Government  in  England  all 
the   promise  of  better   things  has  been  destroyed, 
and   the  future   is   darker  than  it    has    ever   been, 
because  the  Irish  demand  being  one  which  England 
cannot  grant  either  with  safety  or  with   honour,  the 
Irish   Element  which  makes    its  demand  finds    in 
England,  not  the  vote  which  would  grant  its  claim 
but,  the  vote  which  puts  Mr.  Gladstone  at  the  head 
of  a  small  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons,  com- 
posed of  all   the    sections   of   "  the   English   great 
Liberal  party"  and  the  Irish  vote.     The  English 
Sections  have  every  one  of  them  their  own  objects. 
They  have  severally  helped  to  put  Mr.  Gladstone 
into   power   as    their    best    chance   of  attaining  to 
these.     What  Mr.  Gladstone's,  Home  Rule  Policy 
may  be  nobody  knows.    It  may  be  doubted  whether 
in    the    concurrent   difficulties   of    his    position    he 
knows  this  himself. 

Meantime  "  the  only  man  who  can  govern  Eng- 
land "  is  once  again  in  power  at  the  head  of  all 
those  who  are  bent  upon  destroying  this  or  that  ele- 
ment of  the  Constitution  in  "  Church  and  State." 

It  is  a  most  curious  descent  to  trace  from  early 
childhood  downwards,  as  from  many  curiously  con- 
current circumstances  I  am  able  to  trace  it. 


26 

The  special  connection  of  "Religious  Equality" 
with  Wales,  in  the  early  utterance  of  the  words 
at  a  meeting  in  Wales  not  long  after  the  con- 
clusion of  the  late  election  will  have  to  be  enlarged 
upon  further  down.  Meantime,  looking  to  the 
illustration  of  it  that  I  have  already  employed,  I 
have  this  to  say.  That  it  was  Mr.  Gladstone  who 
in  1847  first  called  my  special  attention  to  what 
was  in  hand  in  respect  of  the  Parish  Schools  of 
the  Church  of  England,  in  the  matter  of  "  the 
Management  Clauses."  It  was  in  his  reply  to  a 
published  letter  of  mine  addressed  to  him  setting 
forth  the  then  present  and  prospective  issues  of 
the  Creation  of  the  Committee  of  Council  on  Edu- 
cation by  Lord  John  Russell  1839-40,  upon  the 
strength  of  a  majority  of  2  in  House  of  Com- 
mons for,  and  upon  the  weakness  of  a  minority  of 
III  in  the  House  of  Lords.  A  thing  more  dis- 
tinctly Revolutionary,  and  more  directed  against 
the  Religious  Equality  of  the  Constitution  in 
"  Church  and  State  "  is  not  upon  record. 

The  scheme  thus  promoted  by  the  then  Prime 
Minister  had  been  ,  under  the  hatching  process 
before  1832,  and  in  the  fostering  private  care  of 
three  men — the  then  Marquis  of  Lansdowne,  Lord 
John  Russell  and  Sir  Francis  Kay  Shuttleworth. 
It  had,  however,  leaked  out  a  little,  and  had  reached 
the  original  founders  of  the  "  National  Society  for 
the  Education  of  the  Poor  in  the  Principles  of  the 
Established  Church."  These  sound-minded  men 
were  directly  opposed  to  it  throughout.  There 
were  preliminary  steps  and  inducements  held  out 
by  the  framers  of  the  Scheme  up  to  1839-40,  but 


27 


no  overt  act.  I  was  well  aware  in  part  of  what 
was  in  its  main  feature  proposed  to  be  done.  In 
1839-40  the  chicken  came  forth;  and  the  Consti- 
tutional party  in  the  House  of  Commons  were 
finally  defeated  by  a  majority  of  2,  as  I  have 
stated  above. 

About  that  time  or  a  year  later  I  was  building 
Schools  in  my  then  Parish  of  Broadwinsor,  Dorset ; 
and    was    asking    assistance    out    of    Government 
Money.     The   Committee  of  Council  on  "  Educa- 
tion," i.e.  upon  Instruction,  first,  in  knowledge  Secu- 
lar, second,  in  knowledge  of  things   Religious  just 
so  far  as  the  second  could  be  combined  with  the 
first,  thus  inverting  the  order  of  the  Church  and  of 
the  Providence  of  God,— objected  to  my  requirement 
that  the   Parish   School   I   was  building  should   be 
wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  Priest  of  the  Parish.     I 
would  not  accept  their  requirement ;  and,  as  I  then 
supposed,  the  Committee  finding  that  things  were 
not  ripe  for  pressing  their  view  of  the  case,  gave 
way,  and   I  got  my  school  constituted  as   I  would 
have  it.     Five  years  after  I  came  to  East  Brent  m 
1845,   and    found   there  a  new  School   constituted 
upon  the  same  basis  by  the  man  who  had  been  my 
next    neighbour    in     Dorset,    the    Hon.    and    Rev. 
William  Law.      I    do  not  know  what  has  become 
of  my  stipulations  at   Broadwinsor  :  but  I  do  know 
what  has  become  of  them  at   East   Brent.     They 
have  stood  fast  from  1845  to   1892,  and  will  stand 
fast  so  long  as  I  am  Vicar  of  East  Brent.     Since 
1847  I  have  not  had  a  sixpence  of  the  Government 
money,  and  have  no  connection,  direct  or  indirect, 
with  Committee  of  Council  on  "  Education." 


28 

In  1847,  I  proceeded  to  take  up  the  whole 
matter  at  issue  between  the  Civil  Power  and  the 
Church  of  England  as  being  one  of  which  it  was 
impossible  to  overstate  the  importance,  and  made 
my  first  public  move  after  much  consideration  with 
my  dear  old  friend  Bishop  Bagot,  and  with  the 
hearty  concurrence  of  Clergy  and  Laity  in  the 
Diocese  of  Bath  and  Wells  at  the  annual  Meeting 
of  the  National  Society  in  1847.  I  was  seconded 
by  Christopher  Wordsworth,  afterwards  Bishop  of 
Lincoln. 

The  sense  of  the  meetino-  was  altoijether  with 
me,  when  my  dear  brother  Edward,  then  Bishop  of 
Salisbury,  and  Samuel  Wilberforce,  then  Bishop  of 
Oxford,  asked  Edward  Manning,  then  Archdeacon 
of  Surrey,  to  move  an  amendment  for  delay,  is- 
suing practically  in  stultifying  the  vote  which  was 
in  my  hands.  Manning  was  then  very  high  in  the 
estimation  of  English  Churchmen.  I  was,  com- 
paratively and  very  reasonably,  unknown. 

I  went  home  wuth  hearty  assurances  of  support 
from  large  numbers  of  Churchmen  who  saw  what 
was  at  stake,  and  prepared  for  the  resistance  to  the 
Government  scheme  down  to  1852.  The  details 
are  in  "  Notes  of  My  Life,"  c.  VI L  pp.  95,  221. 

I  have  been  told  some  years  ago  by  one  who 
heard  it  said  by  a  high  Whig  authority  that  the 
only  reliable  account  of  the  entire  controversy  be- 
tween the  Temporal  Power  and  myself  and  others, 
including  dear  John  Keble,  is  to  be  found  in 
"  Notes  of  My  Life."  The  record  runs  from  1839- 
40  to  1870,  when  the  Lower  House  of  Convocation, 
seduced  by  the  proposals  of  Mr.  Forster,  Mr.  Glad- 


29 

stone  being   Prime    Minster,    deserted   me  after   a 
support  by  successive  large  majorities  of  i8  years. 

I  return  to  what  took  place  in  the  same  matter 
in  1852. 

The  Earl  of  Derby,  who  had  fought  the  battle  in 
the  House  of  Commons  in  1839-40  against  the 
Committee  of  Council  on  Education,  came  into 
power,  but  was  not  in  a  majority  in  the  House  of 
Commons. 

I  was  called  to  London  the  summer  of  1852  by 
the  Government.  The  Government  wished  to  know 
whether  a  certain  concession  would  satisfy  me,  and 
issue  in  the  withdrawal  of  my  notice  for  annual 
meeting  of  National  Society  in  which  I  was  to 
have  the  support  of  John  Keble. 

I  was  shown  the  Minute  and  asked  whether  it 
would  satisfy  me.  I  said  "  no."  That  it  gave  me 
only  a  part  of  what  was  required  for  the  safety  of 
the  Church  School  in  its  integrity,  and  therefore  in 
its  value.  But  I  added  that,  as  it  was  the  first 
instance  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  evincing 
a  disposition  to  deal  truly  with  the  Church  of 
England,  I  would  accept  it. 

I  was  then  asked  whether  I  could  answer  for  my 
supporters.  I  said  that  they  would  act  with  me 
upon  what  I  had  to  tell  them,  with  my  ground  for 
so  acting  :  adding  that  I  understood  that  I  was  at 
liberty  to  state  publicly  on  the  morrow  to  the  meet- 
ing the  proposal  of  the  Government.  Certainly, 
was  the  reply. 

I  withdrew  my  Resolutions,  and  everybody  was 
glad.      But  I  could  not  be  so  glad. 

The  Minute  promised  would  have  to  lie  upon 
the  Table  of  the   House  forty  days  awaiting   ob- 


30 

jections.  Of  course  it  was  objected  to.  Govern- 
ment was  asked  whether  what  I  had  stated  was 
authorised  by  it.  Upon  answer  in  the  affirmative 
the  fate  of  the  Minute  was  sealed.  I  went  home 
and  set  up  a  school  beside  the  Parish  School  in  my 
own  house  at  E.  Brent.  This  lasted  very  happily 
for  two  years.  Then  came  the  Prosecution  in  the 
matter  of  "  the  Real  Presence,"  lasting  four  years 
one  month,  and  issuing  in  its  own  defeats  I  was 
compelled  to  give  up  the  School  in  the  Vicarage 
House  with  much  regret. 

After  the  Lower  House  of  Convocation  left  me 
in  1869,  and  accepted  Mr.  Forster,  I  have  not 
concerned  myself  directly  or  indirectly  with  the 
"Church  School."  In  the  true  sense  of  "Church 
School  "  the  thing  is  gone  from  every  such  school 
if  it  receive  aid  from  the  "  Committee  of  Council  on 
Education."  No  doubt  there  is  a  quasi-Church 
school,  but  the  true  type  is  subject  to  having 
no  connection  direct  or  indirect  with  the  Civil 
Power.  No  doubt  there  are  immense  exertions 
and  sacrifices  on  the  part  of  Bishops,  Priests, 
People  to  retain  all  the  principles  and  the  power 
of  a  "  Church  School  "  they  can  retain  ;  but  in  its 
integrity  the  Church  School,  the  nursery  of  the 
Parish  Church,  cannot  be  had,  so  long  as  it  be 
connected  with  the  Temporal  Power.  I  say  more. 
I  say  that  the  fruit  of  this  muddling  up  together 
Religious  and  Secular  Instruction,  subordinating 
Religious  to  Secular,  and  calling  the  compound 
Education,  is  an  abuse  of  terms.  More  again  than 
this,  that  it  has  issued  in  producing  and  fostering 

^  See  Contents,  p.  ix. 


the  great  curse  and  root  of  the  evil  of  our  time  ; 
I  mean  Indifferentism  in  Religion,  the  parent  of 
Infidelity.  Even  the  name  "  Church  School  "  has 
almost  disappeared,  and  "  Voluntary  School  "  has 
come  into  its  room ;  and  the  Church  School  of 
England,  which  has  the  first  right  to  the  fostering 
care  of  the  Constitution  in  "  Church  and  State,"  is 
bundled  up  with  certain  other  "  voluntary  schools," 
into  which  no  children  are  obtruded,  and  those  only 
admitted  that  the  Managers  of  the  School  would 
of  their  own  mind  admit. 

But,  it  is  said,  will  you  not  even  allow  us,  Priests 
of  the  Church  with  yourself,  to  make  the  best  we 
can  of  what  is  no  doubt  a  bad  business  ?  Well,  I 
have  a  liking  for  logic,  which,  with  a  good  many 
other  valuable  things,  is  fast  becoming,  under 
Mr.  Gladstone's  patronage,  out  of  date,  and  I  try  to 
distinguish  a  little.  I  say  then  that,  if  a  thing  is 
not  vicious  hi  pjHjtciple  as  befoTe  the  Church,  there 
may  be  room  for  making  the  best  of  a  bad  case. 
But  when  there  can  be  no  doubt  at  all  that  a  thing 
is  vicious  in  principle,  then  there  is  no  room  for 
making  the  best  of  it.  In  other  words  :  If  the 
Parish  Priest  be  not  allowed  without  any  manner 
of  hindrance  to  go  into  his  Parish  School,  the 
nursery  of  his  Parish  Church,  at  any  hour  of  the 
day  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  all  the  children 
there  their  first  business  and  duty  —  that  is,  to 
know  and  to  love  the  Religion  of  Christ — because 
there  are  children  there,  under  the  compulsory 
requirements  of  the  Temporal  Power,  who  have 
neither  received  Holy  Baptism,  nor  are  being  pre- 
pared to  receive  it,  then  I  say  this  is  to  break  into 


32 

the  Province,  and  to  break  down  the  right  Divine 
committed  to  the  Church,  and  to  do  what  can  be 
done  to  disparage  its  authority  and  destroy  its 
power,  which  are  both  of  them  Gifts  of  God. 

I  have  returned  above  to  part  of  the  contents  of 
"  Notes  of  My  Life."      It  is  necessary  to  any  suffi- 
cient understanding  of  the  history  of  the  sacrifice  of 
the    "  Church    School "    in    the    process    proposed 
before  1832  ;  carried  out  into  open  assault  1839-40, 
when   the    "  unostentatious "    policy   of   Sir  James 
Kay  Shuttleworth,  the  prime  mover,  was  exchanged 
for  that  open  assault — passing  through  some  tem- 
porary   delays,    and    finally    consolidated    in     Mr. 
Forster's   Bill   of   1870,   when    Mr.   Gladstone  was 
Prime    Minister.       That    Bill   has    been    the   basis 
upon  which  further  development  of  the   principle 
that  Education  "  Religious,"  and  "non-Religious," 
has  to  be  conducted  in  England  on  the  final  respon- 
sibility of  the  Temporal  Power,  with  the  Proviso 
that  the  teaching  of  the  "  non-Religious,"  or  Secu- 
lar, is  the  p7'i7nary  business  of  a  Government  which 
has  all  alone  been  a  Government  of  "  Church  and 
State  " — with  the  "  Religious  "  subordinated  to  the 
exigencies,  real  or  imaginary,  of  the  non-Religious.' 
This  has  been  the  true  history  of  the  case  now  for 
60  years.      It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that  a 
system  of  this  distinct  character  is  in  its  nature  of 
one  tendency ;  and  that  the  tendency  is   to   lower 
the  value  of  the  *'  Religious  "  in  the  public  mind  ; 
and  promote  the  "  Secular  "  at  the  expense  of  the 
"  Religious."     That  there  are  not  a  few  who  grasp 
the  whole  extent  of  the  injury  thus  effected  by  what 


33 

is  called  Policy  ;  and  are  labouring  with  energies 
and  means  in  a  very  bad  case  in  support  of  the 
"  Religious,"  does  not  in  any  degree  make  better 
or  palliate  the  action  of  those  who  are  respon- 
sible for  the  bad  case.  Persecution  of  the  Truth 
no  doubt  developes  and  increases  always  the 
power  of  the  Truth.  But  that  is  not  to  the 
excuse,  as  it  is  certainly  not  to  the  mind,  of  the 
persecutor. 

I  pass  on  to  certain  remarkable  points  in  the 
Educational  Controversy  from  1852  to  1870.  The 
fuller  account  of  them  is  to  be  found  in  "  Notes  of 
My  Life,"  pp.  267-275,  and  other  places.  There 
are  some  portions  of  that  account  which  I  reproduce 
here. 

I  first  advert  to  "the  Manchester  and  Salford 
Education  Scheme."  This  received  its  final  accom- 
plishment, and  a  good  deal  more  besides  in  the 
Elementary  Education  Act  of  1870.  Mr.  Entwisle 
of  Manchester  was  its  chief  promoter.  But,  1 8  years 
before  1870,  public  men  generally  were  "not  pre- 
pared" for  it.  In  conjunction  with  two  very  power- 
ful allies,  one  in  the  South,  the  other  in  the  North 
of  England,  the  Rev.  Henry  Newland  and  W.  Ro- 
mayne  Callender,  Esq.,  afterwards  Member  for 
Manchester,  I  did  what  I  could  to  stay  the  plague ; 
and  it  did  not  succeed. 

I  remember  then  writing  to  Mr.  Gladstone  upon 
It.  I  think  it  was  in  1851.  Some  little  time  ago, 
on  looking  over  correspondence,  I  found  his  answer. 
It  was,  ''what  woidd  dispose  me  to  vote  against 
the  second  reading  is  the  very  insufficient  pro- 
vision made  by  the  Bill  for  Religious  Education^ 

D 


It  is  curious  to  contrast  these  words  with  Mr. 
Gladstone's  account  of  his  own  case ;  how  it 
was  that  he  entered  upon  hfe,  "  /  was  born  and 
bred  in  an  tininflnenced  habit  of  life  ^' — "  Mr.  Glad- 
stone," pp.  38-9,  edition  viii.,  1886.  I  have  been 
told  that  daily  discussion  of  subjects  by  the  children 
of  the  family  was  the  habit  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  home. 
In  1855-6  there  came  a  very  remarkable  instance  of 
how  difficult  it  was  even  for  Members  of  the  Par- 
liament, as  reformed  in  1832,  to  part  with  the 
intuitive  acceptance  of  "  Education "  as  in  its 
essence  a  Religious  thing,  not  a  Secular  thing. 
Sir  John  Pakington  and,  subsequently,  Lord  John 
Russell,  made  proposals  in  the  House  of  Commons 
favourable  to  transposing  the  order  of  "  Religious  " 
and  "  Secular."  Mr.  Henley,  my  dear  wife's 
father,  wisest  and  best  of  men  within  all  my  know- 
ledge, opposed  the  action  of  the  House  in  this 
direction.  The  proposal  failed  because — as  Mr. 
Henley  told  me — "the  Nonconformist  leaders  came 
to  me  in  the  lobby  and  told  me  they  were  going  to 
vote  with  me  upon  the  ground  of  the  danger  of 
'  State  Education '  to  all  definite  Relieious  teaching:.'' 
With  their  assistance  he  carried  his  amendment  by 
a  majority  of  102.  The  then  Speaker,  afterwards 
Lord  Eversley,  said  of  this  that  "  it  was  the  most 
crushing  defeat  he  had  ever  witnessed." 

Fifteen  years  afterwards  this  vote  of  1856  was 
reversed  absolutely  by  Mr.  Forster's  Bill.  When  I 
made  my  final  attempt  at  the  meeting  in  Willis's 
Rooms,  1868,  Hon.  C.  L.  Wood  in  the  chair,  I  asked 
Mr.  Henley  whether  it  would  be  of  use  to  attempt 
anything  in  Parliament.     He  said,  "No  use  at  all; 


35 

those  who   gave  me  my  majority  in    1856  would 
not  give  it  now." 

The  sense  of  this  was  that  Nonconformity  had  in 
the  interval  become,  in  its  substance,  political. 

In  taking  leave  of  my  public  contention  against 
what  is  called   "  State  Education,"  a  thing,  Tn   its 
own  nature,  however  it  may  be  disguised  or  quali- 
fied,   essentially    and    irredeemably    hostile    to    the 
Church  of  England  ;  and  having  for  its  issue  "  In- 
differentism,"  the  parent  and  precursor  of  Infidelity, 
there  are  two  parts  of  its  history  which  I  may  not 
omit  to  notice.     Before  dealing  with  these  I  note 
once  more  that  the  true  character  of  our  Parishes, 
our  Parish   schools,  our   Universities  has   suffered 
hopelessly   under    it.      Some   twenty  years   ago    I 
took  my  name  off  the  books  of  the  University  of 
Oxford.      I  did  this  because  I  could  not,  and  can- 
not, see  "  Dominus  Illumlnatio  Mea "  retained  as 
the  watchword  of  the  University  when  Its  meaning 
was  gone.     In  connection  with  this   issue,   I  have 
something  to  say  upon  the  words  of  Mr.  Gladstone 
In  his  late  lecture  at  Oxford. 

It  may  be  very  natural  to  Mr.  Gladstone— who, 
as  I  have  been  compelled  to  conclude  for  many 
years,  himself  holding  the  Truth  Catholic,  holds  it,  not 
as  a  trust  delivered  to  him  by  the  Church  to  keep, 
defend,  maintain,  teach,  first  for  himself,  next  for  all 
men,  but,  on  the  ground  of  his  own  reasoning  power, 
and  therefore  as  a  thing  independent  of  all  Law 
external  to  himself,— It  may  be  very  natural  to  him 
to  say,  as  I  find  him  laying  down  very  early  In  his 
late  lecture,  that  the  germ  of  Oxford  University 
was  the  conflict  between  the  lay  and  the   ecclesi- 

D  2 


36 

as'tical  element.  But  to  say  this  is  one  thing ;  to 
accept  it  is  another  thing.  The  words  might  be 
true  enough  if  apphed  to  a  gathering  together  of 
learned  men  for  purposes  of  discussion  of  thought 
pressing  heavily  upon  heart  and  mind  before  Christ 
came.  For  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  there  were 
among  them  those  who  were  insisting  upon  and 
looking  for  something  above  and  beyond  the  con- 
clusions of  the  reasoning  power,  something  of  a 
province  outside  man's  province,  and  unapproach- 
able by  it ;  something  which  the  Christian  man 
calls  the  Mysteries  of  the  Godhead  ;  and  others 
again  who  were,  as  there  have  been,  and  are  now 
among  us,  self-reliant  only ;  who  disposed  of  all 
such  thought,  and  its  looking  up  from  earth  to 
Heaven  for  help  ;  men  filled  with  man's  learning,  but 
who  had  nothing  to  do  with  "  the  altar  to  the  un- 
known God."  For  any  such  gathering  of  men 
together  there  was  no  ground  upon  which  to  rest 
the  superiority  of  this  or  that  method  and  manner 
of  opinion,  save  only  the  ground  of  argumentative 
power ;  and  they  represented  Mr.  Gladstone's  idea 
of  a  University.  But  to  extend  this  account  of 
those  very  wonderful  wise  men  of  Athens  to  the 
world  after  Christ-s  corning;  to  apply  it  to  those 
who  had  recognized  and  confessed  that,  in  coming 
together  as  an  University,  the  element  Ecclesias- 
tical, i.e.  the  Church,  had  become  the  teaching  and 
the  gove?^ni7ig  power  by  the  Spirit  for  the  bringing 
Christ  home  to  the  heart  and  mind  of  man  ;  to 
say  that,  all  this  notwithstanding,  the  germ  of  the 
University  of  Oxford  is  to  be  found  in  a  contention, 
(which  the  Church  cannot  recognize),  between  the 


Z1 

ecclesiastical  and  the  lay  elements,  appears  to  me  to 
be  a  very  curious  confusion  of  thought.  I  may  add 
a  very  dangerous  confusion,  because  it  presupposes 
that,  under  the  Gospel,  there  is  as  much  room  for 
argument  against  the  Eternal  Verities  of  the 
Gospel  as  there  is  fo7'  them ;  that  the  raisoit 
d'etre  of  a  Christian  University  is,  in  substance, 
identical  with  that  searching  after  Truth  on  Mars' 
Hill. 

I  return  now  to  my  two  points.  The  first  is  what 
is  called  "  Educating  the  Masses."  I  have  an 
extreme  dislike  to  the  term  "  Educatine  the 
Masses," — not  because  I  have  not  done  all  in  my 
power  to  provide  for  the  true  Education  of  the 
children  committed  to  my  care,  but  because  of  what 
the  term  "  the  Masses,"  as  opposed  to  "  the 
Classes"  indicates.  It  is  not  a  mere  numerical 
representative.  It  is  contrasted  with  "the  Classes" 
as  denoting  the  lowest  order  of  citizens  :  an  order 
which  wants  elevating,  raising  out  of  the  position 
in  which  God  has  placed  them.  Well  I  hope  there 
is  still  common  sense  left  in  England  to  say  that 
this  is  rubbish — offensive  rubbish.  And  for  the 
means  of  so  elevating  them,  if  it  is  to  be  mainly,  if 
not  exclusively,  Secular  teaching,  with  or  without 
Religion.     This  is  worse  than  rubbish. 

I  think  myself  a  good  deal  more  about  "  the 
Classes,"  and  iJicir  great  need  of  moral,  intellectual. 
Religious  elevation,  and  the  issue,  a  good  example 
before  "  the  Masses."  The  key  to  understanding 
why  "  the  Classes  "  so  much  need  elevating  is  found 
■firstly  in  their  very  low  and  unworthy  estimate  of  the 
Religion  and  of  the  virtues  of  the  poor;  secondly 


38 

In  the  all-prevailing  mischief  of  instructing  the  poor 
in  thines  which  do  not  belonor  in  the  order  of  Pro- 
vidence  to  their  position  in  life  :  more  than  this ; 
things  which  supersede  what  do  so  belong.  You 
do  not  qualify  them  for  the  one,  you  disqualify 
them  for  the  other.  Exceptions  to  this  rule  are  no 
doubt  not  a  few.  But  these  will  clear  their  own 
way  for  themselves.  A  man  or  woman  beginning 
with  a  low  position  in  Society  often  attains  to  a 
high  place  amongst  us.  But  these  are  special  cases, 
and  the  general  order  and  purpose  of  the  Providence 
of  God  is  not  to  be  violated  on  their  account. 

The  other  point  is  the  taking  very  young  children 
away  from  their  parents  at  the  public  expense.  I 
do  not  believe  that  this  can  be  justified — especially 
under  the  particular  character  of  "  the  State  School," 
either  as  respects  the  parent,  or  the  children — and  I 
fear  that  the  proposal  of  and  the  carrying  it  into 
practice  were  only  a  weight  thrown  into  the  scale 
which  is  always  open  to  the  contribution  of  the 
political  parties  fighting  for  victory. 

"State  Education"  then  and  free  Education  as 
part  of  it,  I  put  down  as  two  of  the  principal  causes 
of  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  many  coloured  great- 
ness of  England. 

The  more  comprehensive  cause — that  which  is 
vulgarly  called  "  disestablishment  of  the  Church," 
the  real  name  for  it  being  "  disendowment," 
had  been  introduced  by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  Ireland 
under  special  circumstances  of  aggravation  in 
the  application  of  a  large  portion  of  the  endow- 
ments to  uses   for  which,  however  good  in  them- 


39 

selves,  they  were  not  given.  It  Is  now  pro- 
posed for  Wales ;  is  indicated  for  England,  on  the 
ground  of  "  Religious  Equality."  I  shall  have  to 
return  to  this  part  of  my  subject  matter  below,  in 
reviewing  the  past  history  of  the  action  of  the 
Temporal  Power  in  respect  of  the  Church  in  Wales. 

I  say  vulgarly  called  "  disestablishment  "  because 
the  term  has  no  other  than  a  vulgar  use.  The 
Temporal  Power  of  England  did  not  establish  the 
Church  of  England.  The  Church,  under  God, 
established  herself,  and  was  endowed  by  her  own 
people.  The  word  which  tells  the  truth  of  what 
is  meant  to  be  done  is  '*  disendowment."  Now 
disendowment  of  the  Church  is  robbery  of  God. 

"  Will  a  man  rob  God  ?  Yet  ye  have  robbed  Me. 
But  ye  say.  Wherein  have  we  robbed  Thee  ?  In 
tithes  and  offerings'"." 

I  turn  now,  not  willingly,  but  under  imperative 
sense  of  duty  to  Church  and  State  of  England, 
to  the  man  at  the  helm — the  man  who  "  knows 
that  he  is  the  only  man  who  can  govern  England." 
I  look  at  him  with  a  curious  mixture  of  deep  wonder, 
and  deeper  fear. 

Mr.  Gladstone  is  four  years  younger  than  I  am. 
We  were  not  therefore  contemporaries  either  at 
Eton  or  at  Oxford.  But  many  things  have 
curiously  combined  to  make  me  conversant  with 
circumstances  and  particulars  of  his  earliest  life. 

If  I  repeat  some  things  already  published  in  my 
"  Mr.  Gladstone,  1886,"  I  cannot  help  it  in  my  now 
still  deeper  fear. 

^  Malachi  iii.  8. 


40 

I  left  Ch.  Ch.  in  1828,  on  becoming-  Fellow  of 
Oriel.  I  used  to  be  often  in  the  rooms  of  my  dear 
old  friend  Saunders,  Mathematical  Tutor  of  Ch.  Ch., 
afterwards  Dean  of  Peterborough.  Of  all  men  that 
I  have  known  he  had  the  deepest  and  clearest 
insight  into  character,  and  greatest  power  of  pre- 
dicting consequent  issues  in  after  life.  One  night, 
in  1832,  I  was  with  him  discussing  many  men  high 
in  position  and  in  University  honours,  who  had 
been  and  were  his  pupils  ;  and  were  afterwards  in 
the  public  service.  He  was  hitting  them  off  in 
succession  in  a  manner  marvellously  verified  in  the 
several  cases.  At  last  I  said,  now  there  is  one 
more  I  want  to  know  about,  and  then  I  shall  have 
as  much  as  I  can  carry.  What  have  you  to  tell  me 
about  Gladstone  ?  Oh,  he  said,  I  will  tell  you  all 
about  Gladstone  in  a  minute.  "  His  conscience  is 
so  tender  he  will  never  go  straight^  I  had  heard 
enough. 

I  watched  Gladstone  upon  this  a  good  many 
years  ;  and  had,  as  time  went  on,  much  experience 
of  the  working  of  this  uncertainty  of  action.  It 
was  near  thirty  years  afterwards,  when  talking  one 
day  with  a  near  neighbour  of  mine,  the  Chairman 
of  Gladstone's  Oxford  Committee,  he  said  suddenly 
and  apropos  of  nothing — I  say,  Denison,  I  think  I 
must  give  up  Gladstone.  You,  I  said.  "  Et  Tu 
Brute  ;"  may  I  ask  why  ?  you  know  I  have  said  no 
word  to  invite  this  confidence.  He  said,  ''  I  think 
his  intellect  can  persnadc  his  conscience  of  any  thing !' 

Ah,  I  thought,  and  think  still,  here  is  the  key  to 
Saunders'  prediction.  Saunders  spoke  of  the  boy  at 
Oxford  perpetually  weighing  every  manner  of  issue 


41 

and  conclusion,  and  having  no  ground  to  proceed 
upon  but  himself,  that  is  to  say,  the  conclusions 
of  his  own  reasoning  power — a  nature,  by  his  own 
admission,  "  without  intuitions  ;  "  "  born  and  bred 
uninfluenced."  Later  on,  there  came  a  very  heavy 
weight  into  the  practical  scale.  His  great  attain- 
ments, his  high  character,  his  position  in  Parlia- 
ment full  of  promise — a  growing  belief  that  he 
was  equal  to,  and  would  one  day  attain  to,  chief 
power  among  officers  of  State,  all  these  threw  their 
combined  weight  into  the  scale  of  attaining  to  and 
keeping  that  chief  power.  The  reasoning  faculty, 
exercised  by  him  continuously,  as  it  had  been  in 
early  childhood,  had  taught  him  that  it  was  in  him 
to  do  this— nay,  had  gone  further,  and  had  led 
him  towards  looking  ultimately  upon  himself  as 
"  the  only  man  who  could  govern  England." 

Before  I  go  on  to  consider  that  position  and 
sequence  of  political  party  which  has  issued  out 
of  the  Act  of  1832,  and  has  now  been  in  rapid 
operation  for  60  years,  I  take  leave  to  mention 
a  matter  of  augury  ascribed  to  myself,  of  which  I 
was  reminded  this  year.  I  believe  it  to  be  quite 
true  that  I  did  say  what  I  am  reported  to  have 
said  in  1832  concerning  Mr.  Gladstone,  then  already 
among  the  first  speakers  in  the  Oxford  Debating 
Society  of  not  many  years'  date — some  six  or  seven. 

Mr.  Gladstone,  then  an  ultra-Tory,  and  after- 
wards returned,  as  such,  Member  for  Newark  by 
the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  made  a  great  anti-Reform 
Bill  Speech  in  his  place.  The  question  put  to  me 
this  year  is— whether  it  is  true  that,  being  asked 
the  next  day  what  I  thought  of  the  speech,  I  said 


42 

that  the  speaker  would  certainly  end  in  becoming 
a  Radical,  because  he  had  supported  his  Tory  posi- 
tion upon  Radical  grounds. 

My  answer  to  my  enquirer  this  year  upon  his 
telline  me  that  he  had  heard  both  in  London  and 
Oxford  that  I  had  so  said,  was  this — That  I  could 
not  verify  it  sixty  years  after.  But  that  I  thought 
I  must  have  said  so,  because  I  had  been  asked 
before  whether  I  had  said  it,  and  that  there  was  in 
my  mind  a  shadowy  remembrance  of  my  having 
said  it. 

I  come  then  now  to  that  surging  up  of  the 
Radical  and  Red  Radical  element  in  which  we 
live,  sixty  years  after  the  Bill  of  1832,  and  I  find 
that  Mr.  Gladstone's  settled  conviction  that  he  is 
the  only  man  who  can  govern  England,  combined 
with  the  rapid  descent  down  the  political  ladder 
from  ultra-Tory  towards  Red  Radical  in  sixty  years, 
have  compelled  him  upon  his  own  ground  to  de- 
scend with  the  descent ;  and  that  therefore  it  is 
that  he  is  now  resting  in  his  chariot  at  the  head  of 
that  motley  company  which  he  calls  "the  great 
Liberal  party."  That  he  may  guide  it  for  a  time, 
there  being  no  other  man  in  the  whole  of  it  who 
has  any  pretension  whatsoever  to  guiding  it,  or 
who  in  any  manner  could  fill  Mr.  Gladstone's  place, 
may  be  conceded.  But  that,  as  I  have  said  before, 
Revolutionists  being  hungry  folk,  there  will  be  no 
occasion  for  surprise  at  any  moment  if  one  or  more 
of  the  wheels  of  the  chariot  come  off  suddenly,  and 
Mr.  Gladstone  comes  once  again  to  the  ground. 

Meantime  it  is  certainly  not  a  comforting  re- 
trospect upon  the  sixty  years  last  past  that  men  of 


43 

every  shade  of  the  political  life — beginning  from  the 
time  when  party  meant  principle,  down  to  this  time 
when  it  means  nothing  but  the  leadership  of  this  or 
that  particular  man,  with  as  much  principle  as  he 
can  save  in  the  perpetual  flux  of  it,  and  in  the 
attempt  to  reconcile  its  contradictions — have  been 
doing  nothing  so  much  and  helping  in  nothing  so 
much  as  in  oiling  the  wheels  of  the  Gladstone 
chariot.  Old  Tory  and  New — Old  Whig  and  New 
— Conservative  and  Unionist — Gladstonite  and 
Radical — Radical  and  Red  Radical,  down  the  hill  ; 
flogging  in  front,  pushing  behind,  down  the  hill  to 
the  end  of  it  ;  where  will  lie  what  remains  of  "  the 
many  coloured  greatness  of  England." 

If  it  be  said  these  are  words  undiscriminating  and 
violent,  my  rejoinder  is  that  the  time  is  gone  by  to 
hesitate  about  language  in  the  face  of  fact.  I  take 
one  instance  as  more  than  sufiicient.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone threatens  the  House  of  Lords  with,  what  is 
worse  than  destruction,  impotence  and  disgrace,  if 
it  refuse  to  help  him  in  rending  asunder  the  home 
Empire  of  England.  To  make  "  Home  Rule"  for 
Ireland  he  is  ready  to  swamp  the  House  of  Lords; 
to  worse  than  destroy,  to  make  contemptible  the 
legislative  power  of  England,  and  thereby  to  de- 
stroy the  Constitution  itself.  Are  we  in  such  cir- 
cumstance to  be  careful  about  words  ?  It  would  be 
about  as  reasonable  to  ask  that  when  two  armies 
stand  face  to  face  and  about  to  fight,  they  should 
be  careful  to  exchange  compliments  before  they 
begin  the  battle.  Mr.  Gladstone  has  taken  care 
that  there  shall  be  no  mistake  about  his  purpose, 
and  the  manner  of  maintaining  his  position.      It  is 


44 

for  all  who  care  for  the  Home  Empire,  and  have 
worst  fears  of  what  will  come  out  of  disruption,  to 
call  that  purpose  and  the  manner  of  maintaining  the 
position  in  connection  with  it  by  its  right  name. 

/  make  no  apology  then  for  saying  that  to  descend 
to  threaten  the  House  of  Lords,  with  the  piirpose  of 
compassing  Legislation  thereby,  is,  of  itself  a  dis- 
qnalification  for  the  office  of  Prime  Minister. 

Before  passing  on,  to  what  may  be  called  sub- 
ordinate causes,  divine  and  human,  of  the  many 
coloured  greatness  of  England,  I  sum  up  the 
general  conclusion  arrived  at  above  in  respect  of 
the  manner  and  method  of  her  "Government"  at 
the  close  of  Century  XIX. 

One  order  and  condition  of  Electors,  that  order 
and  condition  the  least  capable  of  understanding 
what  Government  means ;  the  order  and  condition 
most  easily  persuaded  to  listen  to  and  follow  un- 
scrupulous guidance,  and  cunning  misrepresentation 
or  colouring  of  facts,  is  in  the  position  of  being  able 
to  dictate  to  the  House  of  Commons  what  the 
character  of  its  majorities  is  to  be. 

It  is,  therefore,  according  to  the  sequence  of  this 
position,  the  favour  of  that  order  and  condition 
which  has  now,  and  henceforth,  to  be  primarily 
consulted,  in  providing  membership  of  House  of 
Commons.  Now  the  House  of  Commons  is  claim- 
ing every  day  more  and  more  to  be  the  finally  de- 
ciding power  in  all  matters  of  legislation  and  admin- 
istration. A  majority  of  it  has  long  brought  in  or 
"turned  out  the  Prime  Minister  of  the  Crown.  No- 
body wants  to  alter  this.  But  it  supplies  matter  for 
'most  serious  and  deepest  consideration  of  what  stuff 


45 

the  House  of  Commons  itself  is  to  be  composed. 
For  the  House  of  Commons,  in  itself  claiming  more 
and  more  to  be  the  final  decider  of  all  legislation,  is 
in  the  hands  of  that  order  and  condition  of  the 
people  ;  and  claims  practically,  while  it  denies  the 
claim,  to  overrule  all  other  orders  and  conditions  of 
men. 

This  is  a  big  claim,  it  extends  to  dealing  with  the 
House  of  Lords  ;  with  the  Church  ;  and  with  the 
Crown. 

But  there  is  a  yet  bigger  claim  behind,  already  in 
very  active  operation. 

Not  only  is  "the  one  order  and  condition"  to 
have  control  over  England's  Parliament,  Church 
and  Crown,  by  action  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
It  must  have  its  own  Parliament  outside  the  House 
of  Commons  to  keep  the  House  in  proper  subjection 
to  "  the  People."  It  must  have  its  Mass  Meetings 
in  London  and  other  cities  and  places,  as  may  be 
required  for  the  despatch  of  the  public  business  by 
threat  and  intimidation. 

You  may  call  this  "  Government "  if  you  like  ; 
but  it  is  only  a  name  for  what  does  not  exist. 

Of  all  the  presages  of  the  military  despotism 
there  is  nothing  so  powerfully  tending  to  its  fulfil- 
ment as  the  Mass  Meeting. 

For  its  immediate  effects,  there  is  nothing  so 
ruinous  to  the  well-being  of  a  city — to  the  security 
of  its  trade  ;  of  all  its  other  business,  its  ordinary 
peace,  comfort,  and  sense  of  security  as  the  Mass 
Meeting,  with  its  excitement,  its  passion,  its  igno- 
rance, its  delivering  itself  into  the  hands  of  the 
professed  Agitator,  whose  own  trade  it  is  to  live  by 


46 

it,  so  long  as  he  can  persuade  his  hearers  that,  by 
listening  to  him  and  following  his  guidance,  they 
will  get  all  they  want,  whether  it  be  their  own  or 
not  their  own — whether  they  have  any  claim  to  it 
or  not.  The  Mass  Meeting  breaks  up.  It  may  be 
without  disorder  of  any  account ;  though  this  be  very 
difficult  to  contrive ;  and,  in  order  to  ensure  It,  large 
numbers  of  the  keepers  of  the  peace  are  drawn  away 
from  their  own  proper  positions  in  the  City  ;  thereby 
giving  opportunity  for  outrages  which  otherwise  it 
would  have  not  been  easy  to  venture  upon.  A 
Mass  Meeting  day  Is  a  day  to  be  deducted  out  of 
the  business  life  of  a  city.  It  has  in  the  estimate  of 
common  sense  nothing  to  recommend  It,  everything 
to  dissuade  from  it.  In  allowing  it  to  be  on  a 
Sunday,  it  Is  a  profanation.  But  the  Idea  inherent 
In  the  minds  of  those  who  demand  it.  Is  that  they 
are  thereby  a  step  nearer  to  universal  plenty  by 
some  inroad  or  other  upon  other  men's  rights  or 
other  men's  property — and  that  with  view  to  this 
they  have  read  a  very  convincing  lesson  to  their 
friends  in  the  House  of  Commons.  How  near  Is 
the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous.  It  were  well  if  it 
stopped  at  ridiculous,  and  did  not  become  the 
scourge  to  the  city  which  is  the  scene  of  it,  and  one 
more  example  of  the  licence  which  is  now  called  the 
right  and  the  liberty  of  the  Englishman. 

I  go  back  to  the  constituent  parts  of  the  House 
of  Commons  itself.  We  are  come  for  some  years 
past  to  a  House  of  Commons  composed  rather 
of  delegates  to  carry  this  or  that  particular  end 
than  of  representatives  of  the  commonwealth.  We 
are   come    to    the   three-cornered    constituency,   in 


47 

room  of  that  which  gave  us  the  knights  of  the 
shire,  representing  alike  their  own  and  their  com- 
petitors' supporters,  and  bound  to  consider  and 
care  for  them  all  alike ;  a  thing  which  was 
worthy  of  old  England.  To  carve  counties  into 
three  pieces  was  to  introduce  the  idea  of  a  man 
representing  only  his  own  side.  No  doubt  this  is 
always  disclaimed,  but  it  exists  nevertheless.  It 
cannot  be  said  that  representation  has  not  lost,  and 
that  delegation  has  not  gained,  in  the  operation ; 
and  in  the  same  proportion  that  this  has  become 
a  fact,  in  that  proportion  old  England  has  lost. 
What  you  want  for  anything  like  true  Government 
are  the  obligations  of  representation  of  opposing 
claims  and  not  the  delegacy  of  one.  The  idea  of  / 
representation  is  disappearing  before  that  of  dele-  /  / 
gacy  ;  and  while  great  numbers  aspire  to  be  dele- 
gates of  the  popular  will,  whatever  that  may  be,  the 
best  men  of  the  country  are  beginning  to  shrink 
from  the  membership  which  is  the  exhibition 
of  it. 

One  of  the  horses  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  chariot  is 
Disestablishment  or  Disendowment  for  Wales.  The 
terms  are  interchangeable. 

It  is  not  the  first  time  that  Wales  has  been  the 
victim  of  public  policy. 

Not  long  after  the,  so-called.  Restoration  of  Con- 
vocation in  1852  I  was  asked  whether  I  would  be 
one  of  a  Committee  of  Enquiry  into  the  historical 
position  of  the  Church  in  Wales  for  the  last  hundred 
years.  My  answer  was  that  I  would,  subject  to  my 
first  making  further  enquiry,  and  being  able  to  verify 
on  best  authority  the  knowledge  which  I  had  pre- 


48 

viously  acquired.      I  very  soon  was  able  to  succeed 
in  this  particular. 

The  knowledge  is  as  follows  : 

That,  up  to  1 760,  Nonconformity  in  Wales  was  a 
very  rare  thing. 

That  the  Jacobite  had  retired  thither  to  a  large 
extent. 

That  the  Hanoverian  had  upon  this  taken  steps. 

That  these  steps  were  of  the  nature  following: — 

That  the  making  of  Welsh-speaking  Bishops  was 
discontinued. 

That  the  Welsh  Bishoprics  were  given  to  English 
Bishops. 

That  the  English  Bishops  gave  their  Welsh 
livings  to  Priests  beneficed  in  England  in  plurality. 

That  the  Incumbents  did  not  reside  :  that  the 
livings  so  given  were  badly  cared  for ;  and  in  many 
cases  placed  in  unfit  hands. 

That  the  result  of  all  this  was,  that  the  Welsh 
people,  a  people  of  strong  national  feeling  and 
religiously  minded,  fell  to  a  large  extent  into  the 
arms  of  Charles  Wesley. 

Mr.  Gladstone  has  returned  to  Welsh-speaking 
Bishops.  But  a  Welsh -speaking  Bishop  and  a 
Welsh  Bishop  are  by  no  means  the  same  thing. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  do  not  remember  to  have 
seen  any  account  of  the  historical  position  of  about 
a  century  from  1760.  At  the  present  time  it  is 
proposed  to  compensate  Wales  by  disendowing, 
that  is,  disestablishing  her  Church — for  they  are 
interchangeable  forms  of  speaking — in  favour  of  a 
Nonconformity  created  by  action  of  public  Policy  : 
and  to  make  her  a  precedent  for  the  like  in  Eng- 


49 

land.  No  doubt  Mr.  Gladstone  may  gain  votes  at 
elections  by  this  proceeding,  and  will  do  something 
towards  satisfying  the  craving  of  his  supporters  for 
a  breaking  up  in  one  part  of  Great  Britain,  and 
opening  a  door  of  hope  in  respect  of  the  rest  of  it. 

How  he  is  to  be  justified  is  not  my  business  ;  and 
I  am  thankful  it  is  not,  because  I  have  no  belief 
that  there  is  any  justification  to  be  found. 

I  pass  on  to  the  subsidiary  causes  of  the  many 
coloured  greatness  of  England,  and  to  the  dangers 
of  the  counteracting,  impairing,  destroying  those 
causes,  by  interfering  with  their  hitherto  natural 
order  and  course  of  development.  England,  under 
God,  has  grown  to  be  what  she  is.  At  the  close  of 
the  nineteenth  century  it  is  now  proposed  practically 
to  abolish  what  she  has  been,  and  still  is,  by  way  of 
"  pleasing  the  people."  The  causes  of  the  greatness 
remaining  as  given  of  God,  it  is  proposed  to  deal 
with  them  as  they  have  not  been  dealt  with  before 
when  they  were  slowly  but  steadily  combining  to 
produce  the  "  many  coloured  greatness." 

The  first  of  those  causes  is  the  insular  position 
of  the  Home  Empire.  There  are  of  this  two 
aspects;  one.  Great  Britain  and  Ireland;  two,  the 
proposal  to  make  a  railway  under  the  sea  from 
Calais  to  Dover. 

It  seems  to  me  a  strange  thing  that  it  should  not 
present  itself  to  the  '  Home  Rule '  mind  generally, 
that  if  England  had  to  fight  the  battle  of  Europe 
for  the  fifteen  first  years  of  this  century,  with  the 
Home  Rule  cry  upon  her,  and  in  consequence  with 
a  Home  Empire  disunited  instead  of  being  closely 

E 


50 

bound  and  compacted  together  as  one  land  and 
one  people,  there  would  have  been  no  ground  for 
surprise  if  England  had  suffered  all  things,  instead 
of  achieving  all  things.  And  if  the  Englishman's 
pride  will  not  admit  so  much  as  this,  what  he  can- 
not help  admitting  is,  that  the  prospects  of  the  final 
issue  must  have  been  very  heavily  discounted  by 
any  such  disunion.  Now  no  man  can  look  upon 
the  continental  Europe  of  this  time,  and  hide  from 
himself  in  so  doing  the  many  elements  of  a  general 
war.  At  this  moment  the  peace  of  Continental 
Europe  is  kept  only  at  the  cost  of  six  millions  of 
soldiers.  Peace  is  not  kept  for  Peace'  sake,  but 
only  because  every  one  is  afraid  to  begin  that  of 
which  he  can  see  no  end.  As  for  the  method  and 
manner  of  war  by  land  or  sea,  there  is  no  room  for 
prestige  about  their  issues.  Battle  by  sea  appears 
to  be  no  more  a  question  of  boarding,  the  English- 
man's recipe  for  winning.  Battle  by  land,  the 
farther  off  you  fight,  has  a  great  amount  of  un- 
certainty imported  into  it.  Some  men  say  it  is  a 
good  thing  for  so  many  peoples  being  ready  to 
fight,  for  it  is  the  best  chance  of  keeping  peace,  the 
chance  of  a  common  fear.  Well,  this  is  a  ridicu- 
lous kind  of  consolation  to  have  to  take  to  oneself, 
as  a  note  of  advance  in  the  world's  policy.  Really 
it  is  only  one  of  the  many  delusions  of  the  time, 
to  be  found  out  when  the  time  comes. 

One  thing  on  the  darker  side  I  may  not  forbear 
reverting  to.  It  is  the  sad  instances  of  military 
insubordination  at  home  which  of  late  years  have 
distressed  and  alarmed  us  all.  I  am  in  no  position 
to  assign  the  causes  with  any  attempt  at  precision ; 


51 

but  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  so  much  as  this,  that 
I  find  a  very  general  opinion  prevailing  that  the 
insubordination  has  had  much  to  do  with  the  regu- 
lation of  retiring  from  regiments  of  officers  Com- 
missioned and  non-Commissioned,  who  by  long 
service  and  habit  of  intercourse  with  the  soldiers 
had  established  their  claims  upon  the  confidence 
and  respect  of  the  men.  Perhaps  I  may  be  par- 
doned for  what  looks  like  presumption  for  saying 
so  much  as  this.  That  I  am  only  giving  expression 
to  a  very  prevailing  judgment  is  what  I  have  to 
offer  in  excuse. 

From  the  insular  position  which  Old  England 
has,  with  very  good  reason,  thought  so  much  of, 
but  which  it  is  now  proposed  to  get  rid  of  upon 
grounds  not  very  clear  to  a  plain  understanding — 
grounds  which  belong  to  that  which  goes  by  the 
name  of  scientific  development,  and  universal  peace. 
I  pass  on  to  the  blending  of  races  and  the  product 
of  that  blending  in  England. 

The  product  has  been  the  high  and  conquering 
spirit  of  the  people  of  all  classes.  This  is  largely 
evidenced  by  its  games,  its  sports  at  home.  Abroad 
by  the  grasp  and  the  hold  of  a  mighty  empire  by 
land  and  sea.  By  the  long  record  of  many  triumphs 
and  rare  reverses.  By  the  refusal  so  much  as  to 
entertain  the  idea  of  a  conquering  force.  By  the 
content  to  count  its  soldiers  by  thousands  instead  of 
millions,  for  all  that  has  to  be  done  all  over  the 
world.  By  no  instance  of  Civil  War  since  1745. 
By  the  comparatively  few  keepers  of  the  peace 
even  in  London,  with  its  four  millions  of  people. 
By  the  unwearied  power  of  acquiring  Capital,  the 

E  2 


52 

mother  of  and  provider  for  all  labour.  By  the  right 
of  its  accumulation,  by  the  right  of  its  disposition, 
by  the  claim  of  its  inheritance.  By  the  indefeasible 
law  of  right  that  what  has  been  gained  by  the 
industry,  the  ability  and  skill  of  the  parent,  both 
the  Capital  and  the  Status  in  Society  inseparably 
connected  with  it  should  descend  from  father  to 
son.  That  as  it  had  been  the  father's  to  deal  with, 
because  God  had  given  it  to  him  for  his  own,  so 
is  it  the  son's  also.  I  shall  have  to  say  some- 
thing further  upon  this  when  I  come  to  the 
matter  of  Capital  and  Labour,  which  so  many 
are  busy  about  now  in  making  enemies  of  each 
other,  instead  of  leaving  them  in  the  old  natural 
order  of  mother  and  child. 

It  was  the  Capital  of  England,  the  credit  based 
upon  the  Capital ;  the  confidence  that  what  England 
said  she  would  do  that  she  would  do,  towards 
fighting  the  battle  of  Europe,  that  enabled  Europe 
to  muster  for  the  fight.  England  did  much  more  ; 
she  threw  herself  into  the  scale  by  land  and 
sea,  and  the  battle  was  won.  Since  that  day  her 
triumphs  have  been  many.  England  fights  when 
she  must,  but  her  aim  is  peace.  She  is  up  to  this 
day  where  she  has  been  so  many  hundred  years 
by  land  and  by  sea. 

The  climate  of  England  allows  of  much  continuous 
work.  The  general  issue  is  the  Capital  of  England. 
Capital  applied  to  England's  several  industries ; 
agricultural,  manufacturing,  engineering,  commercial, 
mining. 

But  if  any  one  say  that  the  Capital  of  England  is 


53 

not  now  in  great  danger  of  being  sacrificed  to  the 
demands  of  those  who  have  neither  inherited  nor 
acquired  Capital,  I,  for  one,  do  not  beh'eve  he 
knows  what  he  is  talking  about.  Capital,  to  one 
amount  or  another,  is  the  only  source  of  wages  of 
labour.  It  is  the  goose  that  lays  the  golden  eggs  ; 
now  the  goose  is  to  be  killed  in  order  to  get  at  the 
golden  eggs.  And  where  are  the  real  geese  ? 
They  are  helping  in  the  killing.  For  what  end  ? 
To  encourage  to  something  very  like  plunder  all 
those  who  would  be  richer  than  they  are  by  having 
more  for  themselves  of  another  man's  money  than 
they  have  got  already,  in  return  for  their  labour. 

There  are  plenty  of  people  who  are  always  watch- 
ing their  opportunity  to  lay  up  store  for  themselves 
out  of  the  funds  contributed  towards  organising 
conspiracy  to  force  the  Capitalist,  the  employer  and 
payer  of  labour,  to  what  is  called  "  raise  wages." 
These  men  make  themselves,  for  their  own  uses, 
the  judges  for  other  men,  more  simple,  of  what  an 
employer  can  afford  to  pay  for  having  his  work 
done. 

This  is  bad  enough  in  itself.  It  is  an  inversion 
of  the  natural  order  of  Providence.  The  man  who 
employs  what  he  has  been  enabled  to  acquire,  or 
who  has  inherited  what  his  father  had  acquired 
before  him,  is  not  the  possessor  of  public  property 
for  others  to  divide  among  them  as  they  please. 
He  has  his  money,  and  his  station  in  life,  both  of 
them  gifts  of  God  to  him,  to  employ  upon  his  own 
responsibility  for  the  employment.  Because  other 
men  say  his  wages  are  low,  that  does  not  make  them 
low.     They  may  be  perfectly  adapted  to  the  circum-. 


54 

stances  of  his  trade.  And  these  he  must  know  much 
more,  infinitely  more,  about  than  those  in  his  employ. 
No  man  has  any  right  to  say  that  the  wages  his 
employer  gives  are  too  little,  without  first  knowing 
as  much  about  the  whole  case  as  his  employer 
knows.  He  has  his  own  remedy  in  his  hands  ;  he 
may  say,  what  nobody  pretends  he  has  not  a  plain 
right  to  say,  this  is  not  enough  for  me.  I  will  go 
and  get  work  elsewhere. 

But  at  this  point  his  right  ceases.  All  the  Mass 
Meetings  in  the  world  can  never  prevent  it  ceasing. 
It  may  prevail  with  others  like  the  man  himself  to 
say  what  is  nothing  else  than  the  resorting  to  foul 
means  when  you  cannot  get  what  you  want  by  fair 
means.  The  first  step  upon  the  foul-means  platform 
is  to  combine  to  intimidate  others  who  are  willino-  to 
continue  to  work  upon  the  employer's  terms  from  so 
continuing.  This  is  about  as  great  an  offence — 
short  of  personal  violence — that  a  man  can  commit  ; 
and  very  commonly  it  issues  rapidly  in  personal 
violence  of  one  kind  or  another.  When  this  has 
gone  on  for  a  time,  the  iron  is  hot  enough  for 
the  Strike. 

Of  all  things  in  civilized  life  immediately  in- 
jurious to,  and  never  compensating  the  huge 
injury  to  Capital,  the  payer  of  wages,  and  to  the 
general  credit  of  England,  there  is  nothing  at  once 
to  silly,  and  in  all  its  silliness  so  injurious  all  round, 
so  "the  Strike."  And  when  we  come  to  think  of 
the  power  now  existing  of  organizing  within  a  week 
an  universal  and  combined  strike  throughout  the 
whole  country,  there  is  small  wisdom,  little  fore- 
sight, no  justice,  no  common  sense,  in  those  who 


55 

pet  and  encourage  "  Strike,"  and  call  it  by  fine 
names,  and  denounce  the  Capitalist,  the  wage  payer, 
as  one  who  does  not  know  his  duty  to  his  fellow- 
men,  and  has  to  be  taught  by  force.  And  yet 
this  is  common  language  in  what  has,  I  suppose, 
to  be  called  New  England  as  distinguished  from 
Old  England. 

But  the  Strike — so  far  as  it  has  yet  been  con- 
sidered a  little — is  only  the  skirmish  before  the 
battle ;  the  signal  that  the  fight  between  property 
and  no  property  is  begun.  There  is,  as  there 
always  is  in  like  things,  much  worse  behind.  There 
is  this  behind  it. 

I  have  touched  it  in  two  aspects,  i.  The  refusal 
to  work  for  the  present  wages.  This  is  every  man's 
right.  What  the  wisdom  or  common  sense  of  it 
may  be  in  each  case  is  not  the  question.  I  have 
touched  also  upon  point  number  two,  the  preventing 
another  man  from  working  for  the  present  wages. 
It  wants  no  reasoning  to  be  enabled  to  say  that  this 
is  a  sin  against  society.  Now  for  point  number 
three.  This  is  the  claim  of  the  workman  to  a  share 
in  the  profits.  Who  was  the  inventor  of  this  blow 
upon  accumulation  of  Capital  I  do  not  know.  But 
of  all  extravagancies  of  Socialism — and  there  are 
many — I  know  of  no  one  so  palpably  aburd.  The 
Capital  invested  by  the  Capitalist  or  Capitalists  is 
the  mainspring  of  the  clock.  The  labour  of  many 
hands  is  required  to  keep  it  going ;  going,  not 
"  wound  up."  Well,  says  the  Socialist,  these  men 
contribute  their  labour.  No  doubt  they  do,  but 
then  they  are  paid  for  it  on  their  own  terms.  They 
have  not  contributed  a  farthing  towards  the  capital. 


56 

They  are  the  face  of  the  clock  and  the  hands  :  they 
are  no  part  of  the  mainspring.  Where,  then,  is 
their  title  to  share  in  the  profits  ?  It  is  indeed  well 
if  the  Capitalist  find  himself  enabled  to  add  with- 
out injury  to  the  Capital  any  amount,  such  as  he 
may  judo^e  to  be  good  for  him  to  give,  among  those 
who  work  for  him.  But  this  is  almsgiving,  not  pay- 
ment of  debt.     The  debt  has  been  paid  already. 

What  other  still  further  demand  upon  the  Capital- 
ist may  be  projected,  I  do  not  yet  know.      But  I  do 
know  this,  that  the  present  demands,  demands  as 
of  right,   upon   the   Capitalist,  are   to   the  common 
sense  of  men  as  ridiculous  as  they  are  damaging. 
Common  sense  is  by  no   means   the  all-prevailing 
helper  that  it  has  been  in   England.      Fearing,  or  if 
you  like  better  to  call  it,  pleasing  the  people,  which 
is  the  same  thing,  is  fast  taking  its  place,  as  senti- 
mentalism  is  taking  the  place  of  common   sense,      I 
go  back  to  my  text.      It  is  the  national  spirit  of  the 
Eno-lishman    combined    with    the    Capital    of    the 
Englishman  which   has  made  and  kept  England's 
Empire.      If  men  want  to  ruin   England's  Empire, 
as  many  appear  to  be  busily  concerned  in,  let  them 
go  on  with  their  "  Strike,"  their  interference  with 
other  men's  labour,   their  endeavour  to  intimidate 
those  who  see  no  good  cause  for  taking  part  with 
them.      Their  listening   to   the  orator  who  makes 
money  or  power  out  of  their  need  ;  and  in  the  end 
let  them  betake  themselves  to  extort  what  is  not 
their  own  and  never  can  be,  a  share  of  the  produce 
of  a  machine  to  the  creation  and  repair  of  which 
they    have    not    contributed    one    farthing.       Let 
English  workmen  do  this  to  their  own  hurt  and 


57 

their  country's  weakness.  If  they  would  pause  a 
little  to  look  a  little,  only  a  little,  further  into  the 
truth  and  prospects  of  what  they  are  about,  they 
would  learn  to  look  upon  w^orks  closed,  enterprises 
abandoned,  speculations  ruined,  Capital  withdrawn, — 
gone  away  from  the  old  island  home.  And  why  all 
this  ?  Because  Englishmen  are  being  taught  by  those 
whose  interest  is  so  to  teach  them,  that  a  workman 
is  a  slave,  unless  he  is  also  master  ;  and  can  order 
as  he  likes  what  is  to  be  done  with  the  Capital  he 
has  had  nothing  to  do  with  creating,  and  which  is 
not  his  to  touch. 

I  have  said  some  words  about  Socialism.  So- 
cialism is  in  many  mouths  in  our  time ;  is  assuming 
an  extravagant  character  ;  and  wants  analysing  a 
little.  It  proceeds  with  other  things  upon  impulse, 
much  more  than  upon  authority,  or  even  reason. 
It  is  one  of  those  matters  upon  which  men  and 
women  have  "views."  Now  "views,"  either  upon 
Religion,  or  upon  first  principles  of  Society,  as 
ordained  of  God,  are  dangerous,  and  very  pre- 
sumptuous, things.  The  "  view  "  of  the  Socialist 
proper,  in  respect  of  means  of  living,  is  that  it  would 
be  better  if  all  men  had  the  same  amount  of  means 
of  living.  Now  this  view  oversets  itself — for  one 
man  may  have  only  himself  to  care  and  provide 
for  ;  his  next  door  neighbour  may  have  a  wife  and 
a  dozen  children.  But  there  is  a  more  cogent 
answer  to  the  proposal.  The  whole  course  of  the 
language  of  the  Bible  declares  the  poor  to  be  a 
primary  part  of  His  Providence.  Deut.  xv.  ii, 
I  Sam.  ii.  7.  And  surely  it  requires  no  argument 
to  show  to  the  common    understanding   power  of 


man  how  much  better  it  is  that  it  should  be  so, 
even  if  God  had  not  declared  it  to  be  part  of  His 
Providence. 

But,  to  Q-o  a  litde  further  into  the  matter,  there 
are  fallacies  which  lie  at  the  root  of  the  Socialist 
theory. 

It  is  not  only  means  of  life,  but  it  is  station  in 
life  which  are  part  of  the  Providence  of  God. 
Means  are  either  inherited  or  acquired.  So  is 
station.  The  means  in  some  cases^  create  the  sta- 
tion— in  others  support  and  maintain  it.  Now  no 
man  can  divest  himself  of  his  station,  even  though 
he  give  up  all  care  for  the  discharge  of  the  natural 
duties  of  it.  How,  then,  may  he  divest  himself 
of  the  means  appointed  of  God  for  the  discharge 
of  the  natural  duties  of  it.  What  we  call  "  a  Gen- 
tleman "  would  remain  a  gentleman  still,  though  he 
were  to  give  away  all  the  means  of  maintaining  the 
position  and  the  name.  But  as  he  cannot  give 
away  his  station,  so  neither  ought  he  to  give  away 
what  has  been  given  him  to  maintain  it.  To  bring 
up  a  family  in  the  comfort  and  luxury  which  are 
inseparable,  however  carefully  guarded  against  in 
respect  of  excess,  and  to  leave  them  perhaps 
late  in  life  to  begin  a  different  kind  of  life,  does 
certainly  appear  difficult  to  justify.  I  am  supposing 
a  case  in  which  family  possessions  are  alienated 
and  applied  to  some  greaft  public  purpose.  Alms- 
giving, one  of  the  three  great  duties  enjoined  by 
our  Lord,  Almsgiving  to  any  extent  not  impairing 
the  resources  of  Capital  is  quite  another  thing. 

There  is  one  more  consideration  before  I  leave  this 


59 

matter.  The  respect  due  to  higher  station  should 
never  be  interfered  with  by  famih'arity  of  manner 
not  consistent  with  the  relative  position  of  the  two 
parties.  As  much  kindness  always  as  can  be,  but 
no  levelling  as  no  condescension.  The  poor  them- 
selves are  the  truest  and  best  teachers  in  this  par- 
ticular. They  love  and  they  respect  in  a  manner 
very  admirable,  being  perfectly  natural,  and  accord- 
ing to  the  innate  tendencies  of  their  position,  the 
Christian  Gentleman.  They  are  quite  at  their  ease 
with  him,  but  they  do  not  lose  the  feeling  that  the 
two  positions  are  not  one  and  the  same.  They  are 
glad  to  have  it  as  it  is.  The  opposite  of  it  is  not 
natural  to  them  ;  and  answers  no  good  purpose. 

Again,  the  project  of  dividing  a  property  into  so 
many  shares  of  each  the  same  amount,  which  is  one 
of  the  theories  of  Socialism,  does  not  require  more 
than  twenty-four  hours  to  expose  its  futility.  If  it 
were  carried  out  on  a  Monday,  the  Monday  follow- 
ing would  find  it  broken  down.  The  whole  number 
of  shares  would  be  much  smaller,  and  a  good  many 
would  have  not  much  left.  A  man  cannot  say 
I  am  going  to  put  an  end  to  the  poverty  of  this 
place.  He  cannot  alter  the  rule  of  a  Higher  Hand 
— "  The  poor  shall  never  cease  out  of  the  land."  It 
would  be  a  most  unhappy  thing  for  the  rich  if  they 
did  cease. 

Old  England,  among  her  many  blessings  and 
gifts,  has  taken  care  to  her  utmost  that  no  one 
of  the  poor  should  starve.  That  no  one  should 
perish  for  want  of  food  and  shelter.  Whether  it 
be  just  or  reasonable  that  the  cost  of  maintaining 
this  rule  should  fall  only  upon  those  who  possess 


6o 

what  is  called  "  real  property,"  i.e.  house  and  land, 
is  another  question. 

In  p.  7  I  have  stated  briefly  why,  in  May,  1892, 
I  withdrew  myself  from  membership  of  "  Church 
Union  "  after  47  years  of  Membership.  I  state  here 
the  facts  connected  with  that  withdrawal  not  in 
their  detail,  which  would  only  be  cumbersome,  but 
in  their  substance.  It  is  my  last  word  in  the 
matter.  I  make  no  reply  to  any  communication 
upon  it  private  or  public. 

I  am  compelled  to  say  once  more  that  the  issue 
as  respects  myself  has  been  of  deep  private  regret ; 
but  of  very  large  public  relief. 

In  the  autumn  of  1889  I  had  come  to  the  con- 
clusion— after  considering  very  carefully  the  ante- 
cedents and  consequents,  and  the  actual  then  posi- 
tion of  "  The  English  Church  Union,"  founded  in 
1859  on  the  same  principles  as  the  original  Church 
Union — the  Bristol  Union — had  been  founded  and 
administered,  and  had  acted  upon  in  and  after  1845, 
— that  the  time  was  come  when  it  had  become 
necessary  that  the  English  Church  Union  should 
reaffirm,  under  the  circumstances  of  the  Lincoln 
and  other  cases,  its  own  precise  position. 

Accordingly,  Nov.  26,  1889,  I  moved  in  Council 
for  Committee  to  consider  about  such  reaffirmation. 
The  Committee  was  given  me  nem.  con. 

The  book  "Lux  Mundi,"  Ed.  i,  the  organ  of 
The  New  Criticism,  had  just  been  published.  It 
was  not  possible  for  me  to  omit  reference  to  it. 
If  I  had  done  so  I  should  have  been  false  to  all  my 
antecedents  as  a  member  of  "  Church  Union."     Ac- 


6r 

cordingly  In  my  Draft  Report  laid  before  Committee, 
Jan.  7,  1890,  I  referred  to  it.  After  the  Draft  had 
been  read  to  the  Committee,  discussion  arose 
upon  Report  to  be  presented  to  President  and 
Council. 

There  was  no  question  raised  in  the  course  of 
that  discussion  about  the  portion  of  the  Draft 
Report  referring  to  the  "  New  Criticism,"  and  the 
discussion  closed  with  the  passing  of  the  Resolu- 
tion following,  moved  by  the  Warden  of  Keble, 
seconded  by  Sir  Walter  Phillimore : — 

"  That  the  Committee,  without  discussing  in 
"  detail  the  Draft  Report  of  the  Archdeacon — which 
"  in  its  general  tenour  they  consider  very  valuable — 
"  recommend  it  to  the  Council,  with  certain  altera- 
"  tions  which  the  Archdeacon  has  adopted  on  their 
"  sup"Q:estion ;  and  would  suo:2:est  that  the  Draft  be 
"  submitted  to  the  various  Branches  and  District 
"  Unions,  with  a  view  to  the  consideration  of  it  in 
"  respect  of  its  general  tenour,  and  report  thereon 
"  to  the  Council."  Carried  iieni.  con.  I  was  then 
left  by  Committee  with  three  other  members  of  it 
to  prepare  Draft  Report  as  amended  for  Council. 

It  seemed  to  me  then  that,  looking  to  the  especial 
character  of  that  paragraph  of  the  Report  which 
included  the  reference  to  the  "  New  Criticism,"  it 
would  be  safest,  though  no  objection  had  been  taken 
to  it  in  Committee,  to  take  the  sense  of  my  three 
coadjutors  as  to  whether  it  was  their  wish,  as  it  was 
mine,  that  it  should  stand  as  I  had  written  it.  They 
every  one  of  them  said,  "  by  all  means  let  it  stand." 

The  Report  so  revised  was  laid  before  Council. 
The  President  was  absent.     It  was  transmitted  to 


62 

him  with  the  unanimous  Resolution  of  the  Com- 
mittee. 

As  Chairman  of  the  Committee  and  Senior  Vice- 
President  I  heard  no  more  of  the  Report  from 
President  or  Council.  I  have  no  knowledge  of  any 
action  having  been  taken  upon  it  as  recommended 
by  the  Committee.  It  became  a  dead  letter,  and 
was  laid  upon  the  shelf,  where  I  suppose  it  may  be 
lying  still,  if  it  exist  as  a  document  anywhere  but  in 
the  shape  of  the  one  copy  lying  before  me  as  I 
write.  For  two  years  and  a  half  I  did  what  I  could 
to  bring  it  under  consideration,  but  without  effect. 
In  June,  1891,  I  moved  in  Council  upon  it.  Debate 
was  adjourned.  In  May,  1892,  I  moved  again  in 
special  Council  upon  the  substance  of  that  portion 
of  it  which  referred  to  the  New  Criticism;  was 
met  by  an  evasive  motion  supported  by  the  Presi- 
dent ;  a  motion  even  less  worthy  of  the  occasion 
than  "  The  previous  question."  Nothing  remained 
to  me  but  to  withdraw  from  membership  ;  which 
I  did  within  twenty-four  hours  after  the  vote. 

I  repeat  that  for  the  manner  in  which  the  Report 
of  the  Committee  of  which  I  was  Chairman  ;  and 
the  cause  in  hand  had  been  dealt  with  by  Presi- 
dent and  Council,  more  particularly  by  the  Presi- 
dent ;  and  for  the  manner  in  which  the  general 
body  of  the  Union  had  been  dealt  with  through- 
out this  matter,  there  is  and  must  remain  ground  for 
painful  regret :  more  than  this,  for  distrust  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Eno^lish  Church  Union  and  of  its 

o 

faithfulness  to  the  Church  of  England.  To  myself 
the  issue  has  been  one  of  great  public  relief.  I 
have  escaped  from  being  committed  by  the  action 


63 

of  a  voluntary  Body  organizing  itself  for  defence 
of  the  Doctrine  and  Discipline  of  the  Church  of 
England  ''against  all  attacks  by  Ratw7ialism ;"  but, 
as  I  have  said  above,  p.  6,  refusing  even  to  express 
so  much  as  one  word  of  regret  for  an  assault  upon 
the  integrity  of  "Holy  Scripture,"  and  the  Divine 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  declared 
by  Him  when  upon  earth,  and  written  for  all  time 
in  His  Gospel. 


I  allow  myself  to  refer  to  some  particulars  in- 
timately connected  with  my  own  calling  in  life 
which  appear  to  me  to  interfere  injuriously  with 
the  power  arid  therein  the  usefulness  of  the  Church 
of  England.  I  have  been  Priest  of  the  Church  of 
England  sixty  years.  I  have  been  intimately  con- 
cerned with  all  the  action  of  the  Civil  Power  which 
cannot  be  regarded  as  subsidiary  to  the  Church, 
and  in  some  chief  particulars  has  been  openly  hos- 
tile to  it.  I  have  never  known  for  myself,  nor  have 
been  able  to  understand  in  others,  the  thought  of 
taking  refuge  in  any  other  Communion.  So  much 
by  way  of  excuse  for  what  to  many  may  seem  to 
savour  of  presumption. 

First  then  for  Ritual.  I  contrast  what  I  may 
call  tightness  about  Ritual  with  comparative  loose- 
ness ;  or  if  that  be  too  severe  a  term  let  me  sub- 
stitute what  is  not  now,  but  was  thirty-four  years 
ago,  uncertainty  about  the  Doctrine  of  the  Real 
Presence,  and  the  primary  and  governing  position 
of  The  Doctrine  as  evidenced  by  the  practice  of 
the  Church  of  England. 


64 

Let  me  instance  what  I  mean  by  my  own  case. 
It  is  now  thirty-four  years  since  a  suit  against 
myself  in  the  matter  of  the  Real  Presence  broke 
down  in  the  Court  of  Arches  upon  the  first  point  of 
the  legal  position,  as  ruled  by  the  pro- Diocesan  Court 
at  Bath,  presided  over  by  the  then  Archbishop  of 
the  Province.  The  points  of  law  had  been  sum- 
marily disposed  of  by  the  Assessor  of  the  Arch- 
bishop, Dr.  Lushington,  in  order  to  arrive  at  what 
were  called  "the  merits"  of  the  case.  With  respect 
to  those  merits,  an  incident  occurred,  too  ludicrous 
to  repeat  here,  before  the  Court  proceeded  to  de- 
liver judgment  against  me.  It  shewed  conclusively 
how  little  was  known  of  the  true  history  of  the 
Doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence  as  the  Doctrine  of 
the  Church  of  England.  Indeed  I  have  best  reason 
to  believe  that  at  that  time  there  was  even  no 
lawyer  ecclesiastical,  except  my  dear  brother-in- 
law,  the  late  Sir  Robert  Phillimore,  who  knew 
anything  about  it. 

The  Court  of  Arches  having  decided  in  my 
favour  upon  the  first  point  of  law,  the  judicial  Com- 
mittee of  Privy  Council  confirmed  the  decision  :  and 
what  I  can  call  by  no  other  than  the  farces  of  Com- 
mission at  Clevedon,  and  trial  at  Bath,  came  in 
1858  to  their  closing  scene  after  four  years  and  one 
month  of  playing. 

But,  all  this  notwithstanding,  and  all  the  entire 
concurrence  with  myself  of  chief  names  at  that  time 
all  powerful  in  the  revival  of  the  Faith  of  the 
Church  of  England,  I  have  to  confess  that,  having 
had  daily  Mattins  and  Evensong  in  the  Church  of 
E.    Brent  since  1845,  it  was    not  till    1871   that  I 


65 

began  the  Daily  Eucharist  in  the  Church  of  E. 
Brent.  Even  now,  after  an  interval  of  thirty-four 
years,  there  are  not  many  instances  of  the  Daily 
Eucharist  in  the  Diocese  of  Bath  and  Wells. 

On  the  other  hand  there  is,  in  conjunction  with 
Celebration  a  large  amount  of  Ritual.  I  cannot 
hesitate  then  to  say  that  Ritual  is  commanding 
much  attention  and  observance,  when  that  of  which 
it  is  primarily  and  principally  the  exponent  and 
the  teacher,  remains  not  where  it  was,  but,  com- 
paratively speaking,  much  as  it  was. 

The  cry  of  High  Churchmen  is  mainly  for 
Ritual — for  the  outward  thing.  The  true  and 
lawful  exponent  doubtless  of  Worship  and  Adora- 
tion of  The  Presence,  but  not  the  life  and  the 
power  of  It.  The  Church  of  England  in  its 
true  action  has  yet  to  attain  to  this ;  and  no 
amount  of  Ritual  can  come  into  its  place,  nay  rather 
let  me  say  it,  and  hope  that  I  say  it  without  offence, 
that  in  proportion  as  Ritual  Is,  comparatively,  mag- 
nified in  its  outward  form  and  aspect,  it  will  re- 
main distasteful  to  the  oreneral  mind  of  the 
English  People.  A  thing  in  Religion  must  be  real 
and  substantial,  and  continually  recalled  to  its  es- 
sence and  power,  to  command  the  respect,  observ- 
ance, love  of  the  English  mind,  lest  it  be  set  down 
to  nothing  more  than  vE^stheticism ;  and  this  more 
especially  in  these  our  days,  when  Doctrine  is  being 
dealt  with  within  the  Church  not  as  the  unchange- 
able Basis  of  all  our  hope  committed  once  for  all  to 
the  Church  to  maintain,  defend,  deliver  to  all  men, 
but  as  one  of  the  things  called  "views;"  which 
every  man  is  at  liberty  to  take  for  himself;  to  rest 

F 


66 

upon  for  himself,  and  to  commend  to  others  as  the 
one  thing  needful  to  the  true  understanding  and 
grasp  of  the  Will  and  the  Purpose  of  the  Provi- 
dence of  God. 

Next  for  Preaching.  It  is  and  always  must  be 
the  few  who  are  eloquent  preachers.  But  eloquence 
in  a  preacher  is  the  thing  desiderated.  It  is  not 
so  much  instruction ;  that  is  very  commonly  sup- 
posed to  be  not  needed  ;  but  the  being  what  is 
called  "interested."  Give  the  eloquence,  or  what 
is  taken  for  it,  and  the  congregation  go  away  :  some 
agree,  some  do  not  :  all  say  "a  fine  sermon."  Now 
what  is  wanted  in  a  Sermon  is  somethings  to  make 
a  hearer  consider  his  ways,  and  repent  and  amend 
his  ways.  Christians  don't  go  to  Church  to  be 
"  amused  "  or  "  interested  ;  "  they  go  to  Church  to 
be  reminded  of  repentance,  faith,  confession  of  sins, 
amendment :  of  prayer  and  praise,  of  Worship 
and  Adoration  ;  and  there  is  no  sermon,  however 
simple,  and  not  "  striking,"  out  of  which  every  one 
of  us  may  not  draw  much  for  his  own  and  others' 
good. 

To  this  end,  considering  all  the  circumstances 
of  the  case,  a  Sermon  should  be  short ;  more  es- 
pecially in  the  morning,  when  it  is  part  of  "  The 
Order  of  the  Administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
or  Holy  Communion."  My  rule  is  ten  minutes. 
I  find  that  it  requires  all  care  not  to  exceed  them. 
But  it  can  be  done,  and  I  believe  profitably  done. 
From  twenty  to  twenty-five  minutes  is  quite  enough 
in  the  evening.  But,  after  all,  say  what  one  can, 
the  preaching  is  become  a  primary  consideration — 
one,  I  may  observe,  not  possible  to  be  commanded 


67 

in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  nor  desirable,  unless 
it  be  directed  to  the  amendment  of  the  Preacher 
himself  and  those  who  hear  him. 

Then,  in  order  to  reach  the  Sermon  what  happens  ? 
There  may  be  a  good  deal  of  music  and  singing. 
In  my  Church  we  have  none  of  either  till  we  come 
to  the  Celebration. 

There  is  also  what  I  call  one  of  the  worst  faults 
a  Deacon  or  Priest  of  the  Church  of  Eneland  can 
have,  as  part  of  the  discharge  of  his  "  duty  ;"  a  rapid 
and  hurried  saying  of  the  Order  of  Common  Prayer 
— and  what  is  even  worse,  a  hasty  reading  of  the 
Lessons — that  is  of  God's  Lessons  to  His  People 
in  Christ.  Those  who  do  not  consider  that  this 
is  the  true  account  of  "  The  Lessons,"  though  the 
name  itself  one  would  have  thought  might  have 
taught  them  better,  lose  for  themselves  and  the 
congregation  what  nothing  can  replace. 

But,  it  is  said,  people  dorit  like  long  praying. 
Men  say  many  foolish  things  ;  but  this  is  more  than 
foolish.  Is  the  rule  of  true  Religion  what  men 
like?  Is  a  Service  of  Prayer  to  be  measured  out 
to  meet  the  likings  of  men — accommodated  to  their 
tastes  ?  Well,  the  Service  of  God  in  Christ  is  all 
the  other  way.  It  is  a  perpetual  demand  upon 
men's  self-denial,  upon  their  choice  of  what  they  do 
not  like.  "If  any  man  will  come  after  Me  let  him 
deny  himself,"  saith  our  Lord.  Certainly  there  are 
limits  to  Divine  Service,  as  there  are  limits  to  the 
day  itself,  but  those  limits  are  not  to  be  filled  with 
what  men  like,  but  with  the  overcoming,  by  grace 
given  of  that  "  infection  of  their  nature "  which 
still   remains    in   them    though  they  be    redeemed 

F  2 


68 

and  regenerate  in  and  by  Holy  Baptism.  There 
is  no  one  of  us,  whatever  be  our  order  and  condi- 
tion, who  will  not,  after  coming  home  from  Church, 
have  more  or  less  to  find  fault  with  his  or  her 
praying  and  observance  in  Church,  and  feel  how 
much  is  required  yet,  under  the  mercy  of  God  the 
Father,  for  the  sake  of  Christ  the  Son,  by  the  Spirit, 
in  order  to  the  truer  keeping  of  the  Words  of 
Christ — "  If  any  man  will  come  after  Me,  let  him 
deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and  follow 
Me." 


From  1845  to  1854  I  was  Examining  Chaplain 
to  the  then  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells.  I  resigned 
the  Chaplaincy  when  I  had  to  fight  the  fight  of  the 
Real  Presence.  Not  at  all  because  my  very  dear 
old  friend  Bishop  Bagot  wished  me  to  resign  ;  nor 
because  he  did  not  hold  the  Doctrine  which  he  did 
hold  as  I  did,  but  because  I  wished  to  "  fight  for 
my  own  hand;"  because  I  wanted  to  keep  myself 
clear  to  fight  my  own  battle. 

My  experience  as  Examining  Chaplain  had  shewn 
me  that  the  main  defect  of  such  qualification  for 
Holy  Orders  as  examination  could  bring  to  light  lay 
in  the  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  the 
Prayer-book.  Candidates  could,  more  or  less,  an- 
swer questions  upon  the  contents  of  certain  books 
which  they  were  expected  to  have  ^  studied  and 
digested ;  but  as  a  rule,  they  were  by  no  means 
sufficiently  conversant  with  the  Bible  itself  and  the 
Prayer-book. 

And   if    I    had   remained    Examining    Chaplain, 


69 

I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  propose  to  the  Bishop 
that  the  Deacon's  examination  should  be  confined 
to  these  ;  and  renewed  upon  these  as  seemed  best  to 
the  Examining  Chaplain  when  they  came  for  their 
Priest's  Orders  ;  together  with  such  other  sources 
of  instruction  and  enquiry  as  in  each  case  the 
Examining  Chaplain  should  judge  to  be  best  suited 
from  what  he  had  gathered  from  the  Deacon's 
examination. 

This  plan  would,  I  am  persuaded,  have  issued  in 
that  closer  and  truer  knowledge  of  the  Bible  as 
being  delivered  by  the  Church,  the  one  source  of  all 
authority,  and  in  the  Prayer-book  as  embodying 
that  authority  ;  and  would  have  resulted  in  simpler, 
plainer,  undoubting,  unquestioning  sermons  and 
other  instructions  to  the  people. 


For  the  great  effort  of  a  good  many  years  to 
promote  temperance  in  drinking  intoxicating  drinks, 
I  have  been  unable  to  conceal  the  conclusion  I 
arrived  at  early  in  the  history  of  the  effort,  that  it 
did  not  proceed  upon  a  true  and  sound  basis. 

First — the  particular  temperance  it  was  proposed 
to  promote  should  have  been  clearly  stated.  Tem- 
perance is  applicable  to  the  control  of  every  kind 
of  mental  and  bodily  excess.  But  let  it  be  granted 
that  there  could  be  no  difficulty  in  understanding 
which  kind  it  was  proposed  to  meet,  it  would  still 
have  been  better  to  have  carefully  defined  its 
meaning. 

Then  comes  the  manner  of  so  defininof.  After 
the  manner  of  most  impulses  not  regulated  by  the 


70 

rule  of  Religion  and  Reason  combined,  but  after 
the  manner  of  a  clock  of  which  the  pendulum  is 
always  swinging  to  its  full  extent,  and  the  clock 
itself  never  suffered  to  run  down,  the  point  insisted 
upon  from  the  first  was  total  abstinence  ;  and  not 
this  only,  but  every  one  declining  to  comply  with  it 
stigmatized  as  a  traitor  to  the  cause. 

Now  the  rule  of  Holy  Scripture  and  of  the  obedi- 
ence of  reason  in  such  matters  as  this  is  that  "  every 
"  creature  of  God  is  good,  and  to  be  received  with 
*'  thanksgiving,  for  it  is  sanctified  by  the  Word  of 
"  God  and  Prayer." 

The  disregard  of  this  rule,  and  consequent  ex- 
travagance of  demand  invading  every  dictate  of  the 
common  sense  of  the  English  mind,  even  in  a  time 
when  common  sense  would  appear  to  have  with- 
drawn into  the  recesses  of  the  scene  of  human  life 
amongst  us,  and  to  have  yielded  up  the  foreground  of 
the  stage  to  sentimentalism,  has  had  an  effect  very 
adverse  to  the  success  of  its  propounders — and 
though  it  may  be  true  that  public  drunkenness  is 
not  so  often  forced  upon  the  eye,  yet  this  may  be 
ascribed  to  other  causes  ;  and  there  may  be  as  much 
over  -  drinking  going  on  as  before — and  what  is 
worse  still,  there  may  be  more  drinking  at  home, 
and  among  women,  than  before. 

Upon  the  whole  I  see  no  reason  to  depart  now 
from  the  conclusion  with  which  I  began,  that  the 
attempt  to  improve  our  condition  would  not  have  the 
success  it  might  have  had  if  based  upon  the  more 
moderate  ground  of  abstinence  from  all  drinking 
of  spirituous  drinks  at  any  time  except  at  meals — 
and  that  for  the  labouring  classes,  who  want  re- 


freshment  at  other  times  beside  their  meals,  means 
had  been  proposed  to  regulate  and  supply  this 
want. 

I  proceed  to  notice  briefly  other  signs  of  the  time 
which  appear  to  me  very  disturbing  of  the  hope 
of  continuance  of  prosperity  and  even  of  security. 

First  I  name  the  diminishing  love  of  work  as 
work — a  thing  of  late  years  creeping  fast  over 
England.  And  this,  coupled  with  the  requirement 
of  the  same  wages  for  short  time  as  for  the  longer 
time. 

Second,  the  passion  for  amusement  and  relaxation 
prevailing  day  by  day. 

Third,  the  growing  to  excess  through  many  years 
of  refusal  of  deference  to  Authority,  qua  Authority ; 
in  other  words  the  lack  of  implicit  submission  to 
Authority  without  demanding  the  reason  for  it. 

I  go  now  to  what  I  call  **  The  Higher  Educa- 
tion." The  English  language  is  about  to  be  be- 
trayed into  having  this  term  perverted  and  stamped 
for  use  as  denoting  the  inroad  upon  the  Religion 
of  Christ  embodied  in  the  interminable  theories, 
and  licence  of  speculation  upon  the  Mysteries  of 
God  which  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  "  The 
New  Criticism." 

Now  the  Christian  man  and  woman  have  to  live 
in  their  little  time  here  two  lives — one  life  is  that 
of  being  educated  by  their  parents  and  others  first 
in  the  keeping  of  the  vows  of  their  Baptism.  Second, 
of  their  continuing  this  education  of  themselves  by 


72 

themselves  till  death  comes.     Nos  nosmd  semper  et 
cotitimie  cdticamus. 

We  in  England,  the  other  peoples  of  Europe,  and 
as  time  goes   on  it   may  be  of  other  parts  of  the 
world,  have  been  and  are  favoured  with  two  especial 
assistances  to  the  mental  power  in  respect  of  sharp- 
ening and  smoothing  its  edge,  making  it  cut  deep 
and  clean.     These  two  are  the  scholarly  acquire- 
ments   of    the    Greek   and    the    Latin    languages. 
There  is  no  grindstone  for  the  mind  like  the  Greek, 
and   no  whetstone  like  the   Latin.     The  one  cuts, 
the  other  polishes.     I  do  not  mean  that  both  have 
not  each  their  share  of  these  attributes.     I  am  only 
specifying  what  may  be  assigned  generally  as  the  most 
remarkable  feature  and  excellence  of  each  of  them. 
If  you   want    power  and   condensation   of  thought 
there   is    the    Greek.     If  terseness   and    sweetness 
there  is  the  Latin.      Latin  is  especially  what  Greek 
is   not,    the    language  of   Epitaphs.     Greek    is    es- 
pecially what  Latin  is  not,  the  language  of  Philo- 
sophy.     It    seems    to    admit    of  a    doubt    whether 
Latin  be  not  the  most  powerful  for  oratory.     In  the 
art   of  letter-writing   it   is    inimitable.      To   speak 
generally,  the  one  is  the  exponent  of  the  vigour  and 
the  power  of  language  ;  the  other  of  its  taste  and 
grace. 

I  have  said  a  word  about  Epitaphs.  It  may  be 
worth  mentioning  that  the  most  beautiful  Epitaph 
that  I  know  is  that  upon  Shenstone,  written  by  an 
Englishman  in  Latin  :  Eheu  !  quanto  minus  est  cum 
ccBteris  versari  qtiam  tui  memiuisse. 

In  our  time  all  that  I  have  claimed  for  Greek  and 


Latin  in  the  matter  of  the  earlier  part  of  Education 
for  that  class  of  mankind  which  God  has  made 
capable  of  employing  them ;  and  which,  I  may  con- 
clude, will  continue  to  exist  in  its  native  power,  in 
the  face  of  all  the  downward  tendencies  of  the  time, 
because  it  is  an  ordinance  of  God  ;  unless  it  betray 
itself  to  its  blotting  out  of  itself  from  the  map  of 
England's  Society—is  called  into  question.  Other 
ways  of  attempting  to  educate  the  mind  and  making 
it  continue  to  educate  itself  are  preferred;  and  a 
new  curriculum  adopted. 

Now  it  appears  to  be  forgotten  or  overlooked  ; 
though  it  be  an  essential  in  this  question  to  a 
Christian  man,  that  the  language  of  Theology,  the 
apxLT€KT0VLKr]  (j)p6vr]aLs,  is  mainly,  if  not  altogether, 
Greek  and  Latin.  Possibly  those  who  desire  to 
get  rid  of  both  may  not  feel  that  there  is  any 
cogency  in  this  fact.  But,  as  I  may  not  agree  with 
them,  I  will  take  leave  to  state  it  for  consideration. 

Meantime  it  is  very  comforting  to  see  the  way 
m  which  the  English  woman  is  welcoming  her 
public  access  to  the  treasures  of  old  time,  and  win- 
ning for  her  own  all  their  beauty  and  their  power. 


In  comparing  ourselves  with  earlier  ages  of  the 
world  there  are  two  points  which  it  is  difficult  to 
leave  untouched. 

^  One  is  that  the  world  has  reached  long  ago  the 
highest  point  in  the  highest  departments  of  intel- 
lectual power.  What  is  true  of  the  world  generally 
IS  probably  true  of  particular  portions  of  it.  There 
are  words  of  Bacon  bearing  upon  this  point.      He 


74 

says,  "  In  the  youth  of  a  state  arms  doflotirish :  in 
"  the  middle  age  of  a  state  letters:  arid  then  both 
*'  of  them  together  for  a  time:  in  the  declining 
**  age  of  a  state  Mechanical  Arts  and  Merchan- 
"  dizey 

Now  surely  it  is  true  of  our  world  that  the  highest 
excellencies  of  product  of  the  intellectual  power 
belong  to  time  long  past.  This  is  true  of  language, 
of  philosophy,  of  oratory,  of  poetry,  of  sculpture,  of 
painting,  of  architecture.  After  ages  compete,  they 
do  not  surpass ;  hardly  equal.  Even  in  respect 
of  mechanical  art  there  are  marvels  of  the  old 
world's  history  which  seem  to  escape  from  any 
reasonable  account  of  them.  And  though  it  be 
humbling  it  may  not  be  the  less  true  for  that,  that 
we  are  living  in  the  declining  age  of  this  world, 
though  we  be  flattering  our  pride  that  we  have 
attained,  and  have  yet  to  attain  to  a  still  greater 
height  than  any  we  have  yet  known. 

The  other  point  is  the  very  curious  one  that 
words  which  in  older  languages  have  borne  and 
conveyed  the  highest  meaning  have  come  in  our 
own  time  to  be  words  of  depreciation  and  something 
like  contempt. 

I  will  take  three  instances.  There  are  others, 
but  these  will  suffice  to  illustrate  my  meaning. 

I.  The  word  in  the  Greek  heL(jihai\xovLa — fear  of 
and  reverence  for  the  Divine  Nature. 

In  the  Latin,  '  Superstitio,'  the  fear  and  the  rever- 
ence disappear ;  but  the  idea  of  something  upon 
which  to  rely,  outside  of  and  more  to  be  depended 
upon  than  ourselves,  remains — something  upon  which 
we  can  stand  rather  than  ourselves — u?ia  Superstitio 


75 

Stiperis  qu(s  reddita  Divis''—\\\^  only  oath  which 
binds  the  Gods.  Then  we  come  to  the  English 
use  of  the  Latin  word.  The  EngHsh  use  is  one 
of  contumely  and  abuse  as  denoting  something 
beneath  mans  intellect  to  trouble  itself  with. 

2.  In  like  manner  'Ej^Oovcriaa/xoy.  Enthusiasmus 
is  not  found  in  Latin  ;  Entheus  is.  The  indwelling 
of  the  Divine.  In  English,  Enthusiam  is  very 
commonly  used  to  denote  a  disposition  of  mind  not 
to  be  relied  upon ;  of  little  use  for  the  purposes  of 
life,  something  not  according  to  the  true  test  of 
"the  reasoning  power." 

3.^  Again  Idicorrjf — a  private  citizen — a  man  con- 
cerning himself  with  his  own  more  than  with  public 
affairs.  Let  us  hear  Horace's  account  of  the  man  :— 

Beatus  ille,  qui  procul  negotiis, 

Ut  prisca  gens  mortalium, 
Paterna  rura  bobus  exercet  suis, 

Solutus  omni  foenore. 

Happy  man  who  does  not  concern  himself  with 
public  affairs ;  who  works  land ;  his  father's  before 
him,  with  his  own  team ;  and  has  no  interest  to  pay 
for  borrowed  money. 

In  English  IdicoTi]?,  an  Idiot. 

Other  instances  will  suggest  themselves— these 
are  enough  for  my  present  purpose. 

Many  years  ago  I  received  from  my  dear  friend, 
Francis  Leighton,  late  Warden  of  All  Souls,  a  re- 
markable illustration  of  the  pre-eminence  of  Greek 
and  Latin  Scholarship  in  preparing  and  assisting  the 
mental  power  in  the  acquisition  of  other  knowled'o-e 
'  ^neid  xii.  817.  .  -- 


76 

What  he  told  me  was  this.  That  upon  the 
passing  of  the  Oxford  "  Reform "  Bill,  and  the 
applying  of  certain  of  the  All  Souls  Fellowships  to 
the  special  purposes  of  this  and  that  branch  of 
knowledge,  the  College  had  applied  itself — he  did 
not  say  enthusiastically,  but — bona  fide  throughout, 
to  carry  out  the  purposes  of  the  Act. 

That  this  had  been  strictly  the  practise  for  the 
thirteen  years  succeeding  the  coming  into  operation 
of  the  Act. 

That  there  had  been  no  instance  in  which  the 
classman  in  Greek  and  Latin,  having  begun  to 
apply  himself,  upon  notice  given  by  the  College,  to 
arrive  at  the  particular  knowledge  required  for 
success  in  the  particular  candidature,  had  not  won 
the  Fellowship  over  the  head  of  the  man  of  no 
particular  Greek  or  Latin  Scholarship,  but  of  honour 
gained  in  the  School  of  that  Department,  to  the 
encouragement  of  which  the  Fellowship  had  to  be 
applied.  The  mental  machine  was  in  the  one  case 
in  much  better  order  for  the  discharge  of  its  office 
than  in  the  other.  In  other  words,  there  was  all 
the  difference  between  the  training  how  to  learn  and 
the  learning  without  that  training. 

I  was  telling  this  story  in  London  to  a  friend. 
He  said,  Well,  it  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  being 
at  Oxford  last  week  with  the  present  Warden  of 
All  Souls,  he  told  me^  in  all  its  substance,  the  same 
thing. 


*' The  difficulties  of  Holy  Scripture"  are  words 
in  very  common  use. 


n 

Now  there  are  no  dijfindties  in  Holy  Scripture. 
There  are  "  Mysteries  "  in  great  abundance — every 
page  presents  or  implies  one  or  more.  But  a  mys- 
tery is  not  a  difficulty ;  and  a  difficulty  is  not 
a  mystery.  Mysteries  are  things  unapproachable 
and  unfathomable  by  human  reason.  Things  which 
we  are  told  "  the  angels  desire  to  look  into." 
*'  Difficulties  "  are  things  which  may  be  overcome, 
by  either  physical  or  intellectual  power. 

"  Holy  Scripture  "   reveals  the  fact  of  Mystery, 
and  delivers  it  as  such  by  the  Spirit  to  the  Church ; 
that  the  Church,  the  Witness  and  Keeper  of  Holy 
Writ  may,  in  her  turn  and  discharge  of  her  office, 
deliver,  maintain,  defend  the  fact  of  Mystery.     But 
the  Church  nowhere  attempts  to  expound  the  Mys- 
tery.    The  Church  knows  very  well   that  she  has 
no  Corporate  power,  any  more  than  the  individual 
man  has  individual  power,  to  expound  and  unfold 
a  Mystery  of  God.     The  Church  has  t\\&fact  of  the 
Mystery  committed  to  it  by   the  Spirit  to  deliver 
for  all  time.     The   Church   has   delivered  it ;    will 
continue  to  deliver  it  unto  the  end.     What  power 
of  apprehending  Mystery  may  be  in  store  for  the 
soul  saved  is  a  "secret  thing"  of  God.     The  words 
of  Holy  Scripture   are  indeed  full  of  mighty  pro- 
mises to  the  saved  in  this  particular.     But  here  we 
can  only  stand  and  wait  in  the  simplicity  of  faith  ; 
as  little  children,  waiting  till  the  father  shows  his 
face. 


Men  and  Women,   Brothers  and   Sisters,  of  the 
Church  of  England,  suffer  an  old  man  to  say  that 


78 

there  is  for  every  one  of  us  one  Holy  Bible,  the 
Book  of  God  :  one  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and 
Administration  of  the  Sacraments.  For  the  Holy 
Bible,  God  has  spoken  therein,  by  the  Spirit  to 
the  Church  Catholic,  the  undivided  Church.  The 
Church  Catholic,  the  undivided  Church,  has  de- 
livered the  Truth  of  God  to  man  for  all  time, 
from  the  time  of  the  delivery  to  the  end  of  time, 
with  all  its  Mysteries,  all  its  Commandments, 
all  its  Teaching,  all  its  Warning,  Comfort,  Peace, 
Hope.  It  is  of  man's  imperfectness  that  the 
oneness  and  the  perfectness  of  the  Gift  of  God  are 
more  or  less  marred  by  man's  touch  ;  and  so  it  is 
that,  with  one  and  the  same  Bible,  and  one  and  the 
same  "  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  Administration 
of  the  Sacraments,"  there  have  been  and  are  dif- 
ferences within  the  Church  of  England,  out  of 
which  it  may  not  be  allowed  to  us,  or  to  our 
children,  to  see  the  way. 

Well,  if  these  differences  are  to  abide,  let  us  bow 
ourselves  down,  and  confess  that  if  we  had  served 
and  worshipped  God  more  truly,  we  might,  if  it 
seemed  good  to  Him,  have  done  some  little  thing  to 
compose  and  heal  them. 

And,  in  all  our  "conversation"  with  those  who 
are  not  of  the  same  mind  with  ourselves,  let  us  re- 
member, and  recall  that  there  is  shewn  unto  us  still 
"a  more  excellent  way:"  a  way  greater  even  than 
the  way  of  "Faith"  and  "Hope:"  the  way  of 
♦*  Charity,"  that  "  thinketh  no  evil." 

Let  us  pray  one  with  another,  one  for  another, 
that  we  may  walk  in  "  the  more  excellent  way." 
And  that  there  be  no  manner  of  doubt  or  question 


79 

upon  what  ground  it  is  that  we  take  our  stand  in 
seeking  so  to  v/alk,  let  us  be  taught  of  God,  as  His^ 
'•  Httle  children,"  in  answer  to  our  daily  Prayer,  to 
hold  fast  in  all  its  own  integrity,  in  all  its  oneness 
and  perfectness  for  the  uses  for  which  it  has  been 
given  unto  us  through  the  Church  Catholic,  the 
undivided  Church — The  Holy  Bible  ;  the  Word  of 
God.  Let  it  be  our  common  and  conjoint  answer 
to  every  "  invention "  of  man's  reasoning  power, 
We  may  not  touch  the  Word  of  God — lest  we  lose 
the  Light  which  guides  us  on  our  way  to  Heaven. 

One  thing  is  too  plain,  upon  the  face  of  both 
"  Holy  Bible"  and  *'  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and 
Administration  of  the  Sacraments,"  to  admit  of 
any  "  reasoning  "  upon  it. 

That  one  thing  is — 

That  the  Book  of  God,  of  Divine  Authority 
throughout;  the  Book  of  man,  throughout  all  its 
own  order  and  administration,  in  its  humble  and 
thankful  acceptance  of  the  Book  of  God  as  de- 
livered to  the  Church  by  The  Spirit,  are  the  wit- 
nesses of  the  Church  of  England  against  the 
Delusion  of  the  New  Criticism. 

I  am  writing  in  Advent-tide.  I  read  in  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  and  Administration  of  the  Sacra- 
ments, the  guide  of  every  member  of  the  Church 
of  England,  the  words  of  S.  Paul,  Rom.  xv.  4, 
"  that  we  through  patience,  and  comfort  of  the  Scrip- 
tures might  have  hope."  "  The  Scriptures  "  here 
of  necessity  mean  "  The  Old  Scriptures,"  of  which 
he  writes  to  his  dearly  beloved  son,  2  Tim.  iii.  14,  15  : 
"  But  continue  thou  in  the  things  which  thou  hast 


So 

"  learned  and  hast  been  assured  of,  knowing  of 
"  whom  thou  hast  learned  them ;  and  that  from 
'*  a  child  thou  hast  known  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
"  which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation, 
"  through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus." 

We  have  here  the  Old  Scriptures  and  the  New 
Scriptures  so  linked  together,  that  no  man  can  lay 
the  hand  of  doubt  upon  any  portion  of  the  one 
without  laying  it  on  the  other  also. 

There  is,  further  still,  2  Tim.  i.  5,  a  very  pre- 
cious testimony  to  the  gift  given  to  the  believing 
mother  and  to  her  mother  also,  of  Grace  to  bring  up 
the  child  in  "unfeicrned  faith." 

"  When  I  call  to  remembrance  the  unfeigned 
**  faith  that  is  in  thee,  which  dwelt  first  in  thy 
"  grandmother  Lois,  and  thy  mother  Eunice ;  and 
*'  I  am  persuaded  that  in  thee  also." 

I  ask  here  w'hether  it  can  be  to  sin  ao^ainst 
Charity,  which  S.  Paul  exalts  above  Faith  and 
Hope,  to  say  with  him,  Rom.  xvl.  17,  "Now 
"  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  mark  them  which  cause 
*'  divisions  and  offences  contrary  to  the  Doctrine 
"  which  ye  have  learned ;  and  avoid  them." 

I  am  constrained  to  say  further,  that  the  Idolatry 
of  Reason-Worship  in  the  room  of  the  simple  and 
childlike  acceptance  of,  and  obedience  to,  "  Holy 
Scripture,"  committed  by  the  Spirit  to  the  Church 
Catholic  to  deliver  unto  the  end,  is  the  seed  out 
of  which  have  come  all  the  heresies  and  schisms 
which  have  distorted  and  defaced  the  Church  of 
Christ. 

A    more    cruel    thing    can    never   be   done    by 


one  Englishman  to  another  than  that  which  has 
been,  and  is  being  done  day  by  day  by  "  The 
New  Criticism."  It  is  shaking  and  pulling  out  one 
stone  after  another  of  the  one  foundation  of  peace, 
comfort,  hope ;  of  the  consolation  given  of  God 
to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  in  all  the 
troubles,  hopes,  pains,  death  of  this  life  of  three- 
score years  and  ten.  Their  hope,  their  comfort, 
their  peace  have  rested  upon  "  Holy  Scripture," 
as  revealing  to  man,  according  to  the  Will  of  God, 
all  that  is  knoivn  of  the  relations  between  man  and 
the  God  of  love  and  mercy — all  the  foundation  of 
the  Religion  of  Christ — the  Book  in  which  are 
enshrined  all  the  Mysteries  of  God,  all  His  Warn- 
ings, all  His  Promises,  in  one  word,  all  His  Love. 

The  learned  of  the  world  are  led,  under  the 
temptation  of  "  the  pride  of  life  "  to  think  that  they 
have  something  of  their  own  to  look  to  side  by  side 
zuith  ''Holy  Sc7'iptu7'e."  And  not  only  this,  but 
something  by  which  Holy  Scripture  is  to  be  judged. 
It  would  be  waste  of  time  to  argue  in  such  a  case. 
Men  who  start  from  opposite  poles  of  thought 
cannot  argue.  Holy  Scripture  states  and  delivers. 
It  does  not  argue  about  what  it  states  and  de- 
livers. The  man  who  believes  that  every  word  of 
"  Holy  Scripture  "  comes  from  God  cannot  argue 
with  the  man  who  does  not.  To  teach  what 
has  been  delivered  to  you  by  the  Church  to  teach 
is  one  thing ;  to  debate  about  whether  you  will 
teach  it  or  reject  it,  for  others  as  for  yourself, 
is  another  thing. 

There  is  a  fallacy  pervading  the  pages   of  the 
"  New   Criticism "    which    requires   special    notice, 

G 


82 

next  in  order  to  the  cardinal  fallacy  of  the  "  im- 
perfect knowledge "  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ ;  because  it  partakes  of  and  displays  the 
unbounded  licence  of  thought  and  extravagance 
of  assumption  of  that  "Criticism." 

Every    "  literature "   is  open    to    criticism 

upon  its  Authority. 
The  Holy  Bible  is  a  literature. 
The  Holy  Bible  is  open  to  criticism  upon 
its  Authority. 
No    doubt  the    Holy   Bible   is   a   literature. 
But   it  is  tJie  one  only   Divine  Literature.     It 
is  thro7igJiont  "  Revelation."     Blessed  be  God 
who  has  not  left  it  to  man  to  say  what  parts 
of   It   are    "  Revelation,"    and    what   are    not 
"  Revelation." 

The  Syllogism  of  1889  has  four  terms. 
Logic  must,  it  seems,  be  expiring,  with  other 
things,  in  Oxford. 

Possibly  the  New  Critic  may  say  that  what  is 
meant  is  whether  the  Holy  Bible  is,  or  is  not, 
"  Revelation."  The  rejoinder  to  this  is,  then 
you  had  better  have  so  put  it  that  there  might 
be  no  mistake  about  what  you  mean. 

There  is  one  more  thing  lying  at  the  root 
of  the  "  New  Criticism."  It  is,  that,  2?i  order  to 
believe  you  mnst  first  under sta7id.  Here  is  the 
full  development  of  the  conceit  of  the  "  Reason- 
ing Power,"  as  the  (3; /rzd7r2  Judge  Our  Lord 
says — "  If  thou  canst  believe  :  all  things  are 
possible  to  him  that  believeth." 
To  believe  and  to  obey  because  you  believe — 
to  help  others  to  believe  and  to  obey,  to  pray,  to 


83 

serve,  to  wait,  whether  by  Worship  in  all  its  at- 
traction, or  in  all  its  simplicity :  so  to  preach 
the  Word  of  God,  as,  whether  it  be  plain  or  elo- 
quent, its  issue,  as  its  object,  is  to  lead  to  more 
earnestness  in  confession,  repentance,  amendment, 
prayer,  thanksgiving,  worship,  adoration.  Is  one 
thing.  It  has  been  well  said  the  end  of  Preaching 
is  Praying.  To  move  men  to  doubt  about  "  Holy 
Scripture,"  the  Word  of  God,  is  another  thing. 
The  one  saves  In  Christ,  the  other  kills. 

Sad  and,  in  all  its  Sadness,  seductive  through 
man's  pride  in  himself,  as  the  New  Criticism  is, 
the  apathy,  the  indifference  on  the  one  hand,  the 
welcome  with  which  it  has  been  received  on  the 
other  in  England,  are  much  deeper  causes  of  alarm, 
distress,  fear,  than  the  thing  itself;  which,  when 
weighed  In  the  balance  of  its  own  making,  that  Is 
when  tested  by  Its  own  new  Logic,  Is  self-stultifying 
throughout.  It  is,  comparatively,  in  its  new  phase 
at  the  close  of  century  XIX.,  a  "  new  thing  ;  "  both 
in  respect  of  itself,  and  of  the  House  in  Oxford  In 
which  it  was  born — and  England  is  very  like  Athens 
in  S.  Paul's  time  ;  but  with  infinitely  less  excuse. 

For  myself,  I  do  not  understand  whether  Mr. 
Gore,  President  of  the  Pusey  House,  allowed  him- 
self to  write  his  Preface  to  "  Lux  Mundl;"  to  edit 
and  publish  the  book,  Nov.,  1889,  with,  or  without 
the  formal  cojiairrence  oi  th.^  Trustees.  If  without, 
I  do  not  understand  upon  what  rule  of  conduct  he 
proceeded  :  if  with,  upon  what  rule  of  conduct  the 
Trustees  proceeded.  I  submit  that  contributors  to 
the  Pusey  House  have  the  right  to  be  told  one 
or  other  of  these  two  thlnors. 

G  2 


84 

There  are  two  points,  one  of  warning,  one  of 
thankfulness;  points  of  our  inheritance  which  I  may 
not  pass  by.     First  of  the  warning. 

The  duty  and  the  comfort  of  daily  reading  and 
meditation  upon  some  portion  of  "  Holy  Scripture." 
Where  there  are  Mattins  and  Evensong  the  portion 
of  Holy  Scripture  is  supplied  for  those  who  can 
be  in  the  Church  :  Where  there  are  not,  it  ought 
to  be  supplied  by  those  whose  necessary  occupations 
admit  of  it  in  the  evening,  in  their  home. 

I  am  constrained  to  believe  that  the  private  read- 
ing of  and  meditation  upon  the  Prophets  by  whom 
"  The  Holy  Ghost  spake  "  is  not  a  common  practice  : 
not  by  any  means  so  common  as  that  upon  other 
parts  of  the  Old  Scriptures. 

Now  the  warning  of  the  Prophets  comes  to  us 
through  its  continued  and  most  mournful  address 
to  Judah  and  Israel  :  "  Lamentations  and  mourning 
and  woe,"  Ezek.  ii.  lo.  It  is,  by  far,  the  largest 
amount  of  all  Prophecy.  Denunciation  of  Idolatry 
— of  all  manner  of  worst  sinfulness,  and  turning 
away  from  God  ;  and  this  among  the  one  People 
to  whom  God  had  revealed  Himself  The  "lamen- 
tations, mourning,  woe,"  are  summed  up  in  Malachi  : 
more  particularly,  with  reference  to  the  Priesthood 
of  the  Jews. 

As  we  read,  the  temptation  is  upon  us,  by  the 
subtlety  of  the  Tempter,  to  confine  our  thoughts 
to  the  evil  doings  of  Judah  and  Israel ;  and  to 
thank  God  that  we  are  not  as  they  were ;  much  as 
did  the  Pharisee. 

But  is  this  the  Truth  of  the  case  ?  Are  we  not 
throwing  away  in  our  self-satisfaction  all  the  warning 


85 

of  the  Prophets — we  the  children  of  the  Kingdom; 
with  all  the  Light  of  Christ  upon  us  :  the  warn- 
ino-  that  we  do  not  in  their  substance  the  same 
things  which  are  the  burden  of  the  message  of  the 
Prophets  to  Judah  and  to  Israel.  Are  we  not 
in  forgetting  this,  or  putting  it  aside,  are  we  not 
holding  indeed  the  Old  Scriptures  in  our  hand, 
but  not  laying  them  up  in  our  heart  ? 

I  have  said  in  my  Preface,  when  contrasting  the 
Idolatry  of  the  Heathen  and  the  Jew  with  the 
Idolatry  of  the  Christian,  that  their  idol,  stock  and 
stone,  represented  to  them  a  power  above  their  own. 
That  the  Idol  of  the  Christian  represents  nothing 
but  himself,  or  some  other  man.  His  own,  or  the 
other's  reasoning  power ;  nothing  but  man  worship- 
ing man.  The  Christian  has  been  set  free  from 
"stock  and  stone;"  he  has  put  himself,  or  some 
other  man,  in  their  room,  and  in  their  representa- 
tion. 

S.  John  has  warned  us  all  of  this  worst  danger, 
"  Little  children  keep  yourselves  from  idols."  From 
the  worship  of  self,  or  of  some  other  man  in  the 
"  Vanity  "  of  our  mind. 

The  conclusion  appears  to  be  irresistible — that 
the  Idolatry  of  the  Christian  is  a  worse  Idolatry 
than  that  of  the  Heathen  and  the  Jew.  Theirs  had 
respect  to  a  power  above  their  own.  The  Christian 
goes  no  higher  in  his  Idolatry  than  himself  or  sofne 
other  man.  God  speaks  by  His  Holy  Word.  The 
Christian  Idolater  takes  upon  himself  to  say  what  is 
the  Holy  Word  of  God,  and  what  is  not.  He  makes 
himself  the  Judge  Supreme  of  Holy  Scripture. 
How  much  therefore  of  "  Holy  Scripture "  is  the 


86 

Word  of  God,  and  how  much  is  not,  awaits  the 
sentence  of  the  Hterary  critic  of  "  the  New  Criti- 
cism ; "  in  this  and  every  succeeding  generation  : 
leaving  "  What  is  Truth  "  not  only  not  known  at 
the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but  in  a  per- 
petual flux  to  the  end  of  time. 

The  mass  of  English  People,  of  all  orders  and 
conditions,  are  being  cheated  out  of  their  Bible  ; 
and  do  not  appear  to  trouble  themselves  much 
about  it.     They  have  themselves  in  its  room. 

Next  for  the  thankfulness.  It  is  in  the  growth, 
and  the  growing  continually  of  the  Missionary 
spirit. 

"  The  Missionary  spirit."     What  is  it  ? 

It  is  the  spirit  which  is  of  The  Spirit.  It  is 
the  spirit  which  is  taught  and  guided  by  The  Spirit 
to  "  count  all  things  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  and  of  His 
commandment,"  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 
preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature."  To  do  this 
at  the  cost  of  all  things,  save  one  only,  and  that 
"the  excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord." 

I  am  little  worthy  to  write  words  about  the  Mis- 
sionary spirit,  for  I  know  well  that  my  own  part 
in  this  gift,  with  my  mind  so  many  years  full  of 
fear  for  our  Condition  at  home,  has  been  little 
indeed.  But  the  call  comes  to  the  ear  that  has 
been  deaf,  and  the  heart  which  has  comparatively 
been  cold.  And  there  are  many  very  dear  and 
near  to  me  who  have  laboured  and  are  labouring 
in   England  and   out    of  England  to   help  to   win 


and  save  souls.  I  recall  with  the  life  of  others  of 
mine  own  people  the  young  life  of  my  dear  nephew 
Edward  Denison,  son  of  my  brother  Edward 
Denison,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  among  the  first,  if 
not  the  first,  of  the  servants  of  Christ  passing 
from  the  West  into  the  East  of  London,  to  do 
what  he  could  to  win  and  save  souls.  The  life 
of  my  dear  nephew  James,  son  of  my  brother  Sir 
William  Denison ;  dead  this  year  in  Africa  ;  helping 
there  in  Missionary  work.  The  life  of  my  dear 
nephew  Henry  Phipps  Denison,  his  elder  brother, 
now  twenty  years  my  Curate  at  East  Brent ;  full 
of  care  for  Missionary  work.  My  last  words,  c.  x. 
p.  374,  of  "Notes  of  my  Life,"  1879,  are  of  him. 
I  repeat  the  words  now,  with  this  addition,  and 
thank  God. 

I  seem  to  be  able  to  recall  the  time  when  it  was 
little  that  was  said  about  this  field  wherein  to  give 
up  life  and  what  are  called  its  enjoyments  for  the 
work  of  bringing  men,  women,  children,  to  the 
knowledge  of  Christ.  All  honour  to  the  Non- 
conformist as  to  the  Churchman  who  makes  It  his 
life  ;  or  enables  others  to  make  it  their  own,  in  and 
by,  The  Spirit  of  Christ. 


I  have  endeavoured  in  the  above  pages  to  con- 
dense the  aspect  of  Political  and  of  Religious  Eng- 
land as  it  presents  itself  to  me,  for  the  last  thirteen 
years.  I  find  it  to  be  a  rapid  descent  towards 
Democracy  on  the  one  hand;  and  towards  In- 
difTerentism  on  the  other. 

I   had  looked  forward  to  the  latter  of  these  two 


88 

in  the  concluding  Chapters  ix.,  x,,  xi.  of  "  Notes 
of  my  Life."  But  I  had  not  thought  to  have  lived 
to  see  what  have  already  been  the  issues ;  and, 
more  distinctly  still,  to  foreshadow  what  these  will 
be  to  us  and  our  children. 

I  speak  of"  Democracy"  here  in  the  true  meaning 
of  the  word  and  of  what  it  includes.  That  meaning 
is  as  follows. 

Democracy '  is  the  right  of  every  male  of  a  given 
age  to  contribute  by  his  vote  to  the  election  of  those 
who  make  and  administer  the  law.  It  includes  the 
free  employment  of  the  Mass  Meeting.  The  poisons 
of  Agitation  and  Misrepresentation.  The  gross 
fallacy  of  "  the  Strike."  The  uncontrolled  licence 
of  speech.  The  loss  of  reverence  for  GoD-given 
Station,  and  its  Authority,  when  diligently  and  duly 
employed.  It  depreciates  what  is  high  :  it  panders 
to  what  is  low.  It  is  abnormal — self-asserting — 
not  co-operating — dictatorial,  not  conciliating,  not 
even  consultatory — interfering  as  by  right  in  what 
is  not  its  own  to  touch.  England  under  its  present 
administration  is  going  fast  towards  Democracy. 
It  forgets  that  a  people  cannot  any  more  do  with- 
out the  Statesman,  than  the  Statesman  without 
the  people.  The  People  are  many,  the  Statesmen 
are  few.  It  forgets  that  the  People  of  the  Church 
of  Christ  cannot  any  more  do  without  Bishop  and 

*  I  am  speaking  of  the  term  "  Democracy"  as  understood 
in  Europe.  In  America  there  is  a  different  and  a  contrasted 
use,  arising  out  of  special  circumstances  of  the  United  States. 
The  United  States  are  a  confederate  Republic ;  they  are  not 
a  Democracy. 


89 

Priest  than  Bishop  and  Priest  can  do  without  the 
People.  The  People  are  many.  The  Bishop  is 
one.  Parishes  count  by  thousands  ;  Priests  one 
by  one.  The  People  by  millions ;  the  Sovereign 
is  One''. 

If  a  man  wants  Democracy  in  England,  he  wants 
the  biggest  Revolution  the  country  has  ever  seen, 
or  thought  of.  If  he  thinks  he  is  going  to  have 
it  without  civil  war,  he  is  an  unconscious  victim 
to  his  own  folly  and  his  own  ignorance. 

For  the  aspect  Political,  England  has  not  attained 
to  her  "many  coloured  greatness"  under  Demo- 
cracy ;  nor  do  I  believe  it  possible  that,  under  De- 
mocracy, England  will  retain  it. 

In  stating  what  appears  to  me  to  be  the  Religious 
aspect  of  the  Church   of  England  at  the   close  of 
Century  XIX. ;   how  much  there  is  to  shrink  from, 
how  much  to  fear  from  within  and  from  without; 
it  is  not  possible,  and  would  be  most  unthankful,  not 
to  recognize  with  heart  and  mind  that  something 
has  come  conjointly  from  within  and  from  without, 
i.e.  from  "Church    and   State;"    and  much   more 
than  something  from  within  only;  for  all  which  we 
have  to  praise  God,  as  the  Giver,  and  not  ourselves, 
save  only  as  confessing  ourselves  to  have  been  His 
humble  and  obedient  instruments.     The  something 
from  within  and  from  without  is   the  enlargement 
of  the  Home  Episcopate,  Diocesan  and  Suffragan. 
That  from  within  is  the  Colonial  Episcopate  from 
Bishops,  Clergy,  and  Laity  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, and  the  restoring  and  the  building  of  Churches 
at  home — ("Schools"  I  cannot  add,  because,  as   I 
^^  Compare  Ecclesiasticus  xxx.  31-4. 


90 

have  said  from  1847  to  1892,  and  repeat  here, 
I  have  never  been  able  to  admit  the  lawfulness, 
or  the  honesty  of  making  assistance  to  the  Schools 
of  "  the  Church "  out  of  the  common  taxes  con- 
ditional upon  destroying  the  fundamental  character, 
the  religious  principle  of  the  Schools,  under  "  the 
Conscience  Clause'")— the  increase  of  services— the 
more  frequent  Celebration  of  Holy  Communion — 
the  increase  of  Communicants  young  and  old — the 
Lay  co-operation  in  ministering  in  and  out  of  Church, 
and  for  special  purposes  of  almsgiving  home  and 
abroad — the  self-denying  lives  of  men  and  women. 

But  there  Is  still  so  much  lacking  if  the  Church 
of  England  is  to  meet,  under  God  in  a  good  hope, 
the  severity  of  the  present  and  coming  crisis  as  it 
has  to  be  met,  that  I  submit  that  there  is  much 
laro-er  oround  for  the  fear  which  tells  the  truth, 
than  for  the  congratulation  which  deceives.  Man, 
with  all  his  learning,  is  but  a  little  child  in  the  pre- 
sence of  "  the  secret  things  "  of  God  his  Father, 
which  is  in  Heaven. 

But,  after  all,  hope  is  better  than  fear  if  we  will 
but  bow  and  humble  ourselves,  not  before  our  own 
Idols  but,  before  The  Truth:  that  in  all  things  In 
which  the  principle  has  not  been,  it  would  appear 
Irretrievably,  sacrificed  to  "  the  pride  of  life,"  the  in- 
firmity of  unbelief,  and  the  idol  of  Political  necessity, 
let  us  hope  that  it  may  still  be  able  to  be  said  of 
England,  that  she  is  striving  to  walk  more  worthily 
of  her  high  calling  "  in  Church  and  State  :  "  that  It 
is  still  to  be  said  of  her — 

Instruity  et  proprios  habet  enumerare  triumphos. 

J  See  p.  38,  on  "State  Education." 


91 

So  much  then  for  the  aspect  Political. 

For  the  aspect  Religious,  I  know  of  no  remedy, 
and  have  never  heard  of  any,  save  only  the  simplicity 
of  faith  in  Holy  Scripture,  and  the  living  up  to  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  Administration  of  the 
Sacraments.  Suffer  me  to  add  to  this  that  this  may 
not  be  looked  for  in  the  People,  unless  it  be  found 
in  the  Priest.  Is  it  difficult  ?  what  is  there  that 
is  worth  having  in  life  as  in  death  but  what  is  diffi- 
cult, and  would  be  impossible,  if  it  were  not  for  the 
Grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of 
God,  and  the  fellowship  of  The  Holy  Ghost  ? 
The  Church  i^i  England  has  to  be  handed  down  to 
our  children  as  it  has  been  received  by  us.  The 
Church  ^England  has  to  be  contended  for  to  the 
utmost.  I  confess  with  shame,  as  I  have  confessed 
it  many  times,  that  for  something  like  two  years  of 
my  life,  under  the  weight  of  many  and  great  invasions 
on  the  part  of  the  Civil  Power  of  the  Province  of 
the  Church  of  England,  I  allowed  myself  to  become 
a  member  of  a  body  for  promoting  what  is  vulgarly 
called  dis-Establishment.  The  ground  upon  which 
I  returned  to  a  better  mind  was  this.  That  it  is 
impossible  to  deny  that  it  is  most  according  to  the 
Will  of  God  that  Sovereign  and  People  should  be 
of  the  "One  Faith."  That  this  position  was  what 
I  found  in  England  as  the  Constitution  of  England. 
That  I  was  in  manner  the  most  solemn  pledged  to 
it.  That  I  might  not,  because  I  was  troubled  by 
many  and  great  trials  of  faith  and  patience,  add  my 
voice  against  it.  If  there  be  differences  about  the 
one  Faith,  there  is  indeed  need  of  Holy  Charity  in 
dealing  with  them  ;    but  there  is  nothing  in  them 


92 

to  convert  into  a  ground  for  leaving  the  Church 
of  our  Baptism,  or  for  throwing  ourselves  into  the 
scale  of  separation  of  Church  from  State.  Rather 
let  us  watch  and  wait  and  work  to  help  to  make 
the  position  to  which  God  has  called  us  more 
pleasing  in  His  sight  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake. 

I  cannot  do  better  than  cite  here  in  conclusion 
the  words  of  my  dearly  loved  and  honoured  old 
friend  Dr.  Pusey,  from  his  paper  read  at  the  Church 
Congress  in  1865,  upon  "The  Spirit  in  which  the 
"  Researches  of  Learning  and  Science  should  be 
"  applied  to  the  study  of  the  Bible  ""." 

"  Physical  science  and  faith  are  not  commensurate.  Faith 
relates  to  that  which  is  supernatural ;  science,  to  things  natural ; 
faith  rests  upon  what  is  supernatural ;  science  upon  man's 
natural  powers  of  observation,  induction,  combination,  infer- 
ence, deduction ;  faith  has  to  do  chiefly  with  the  invisible  ; 
science,  with  the  visible  order  of  things.  Science  relates  to 
causes  and  eff"ects,  the  laws  by  which  God  upholds  His  material 
creation,  or  its  past  history.  It  is  purely  material.  Faith  relates 
to  God,  His  revelation,  His  word.  Faith  has  the  certainty  of 
a  Divine  gift ;  science  has  the  certainty  of  human  reasoning. 
Faith  is  one  Divine,  God-given  habit  of  mind.  It  is 
one  and  the  same  in  the  well-instructed  peasant  as  in  the 
most  intellectual  philosopher — perfect,  solid,  unshakable.  What 
really  lies  outside  the  peasant's  faith  cannot  really  touch 
the  faith  of  any,  however  intellectual.  Faith  lies  above  the 
clouds  of  human  doubt,  in  the  serene  sunshine  of  the  Eternal 
Light ;  and,  contemplating  Him,  the  Cause  of  all  causes,  the 
Truth  of  all  which  is  true,  the  Life  of  all  that  is,  is  sure  that 
there  is  a  solution  of  any  thing  which  seems  for  the  time  (if  so 
be)  insoluble.  Lightning  and  storm  gleam  far  Jjelow.  For  it 
rests  secure  in  the  bosom  of  its  God." 

"  The  words  were  cited  by  my  dear  friend   Canoa  Hinds  Howell,   my 
seconder,  Sess.  Feb.  3,  1S91. 


APPENDICES. 


APPENDIX    I. 


THE   NATIONAL   SYNOD. 
A  Speech  prepared  for  May  Sessions  of  Convocation^  i88g  *. 


MOTION. 

'  Whereas  the  present  condition  of  Discipline  in  the  Ciiurch  is  full 
of  danger  to  the  Spiritual  Welfare  of  the  whole  English  People, 

*  This  House  hianbly  prays  His  Grace  the  President,  and  t/ieir 
Lordships  the  Bis/iops,  to  give  their  concurrence  and  direction, 
with  view  to  an  Address  to  the  Crown  praying  for  the  con- 
vening of  a  National  Synod  of  the  two  Provinces  of  Canterbury 
and  York  to  take  counsel  attd  to  advise  upon  such  measures 
as  may  be  needful  in  the  present  distress. 


Sir,  The  Right  Rev.  the  PROLOCUTOR, — 

I  find  it  more  than  difficult  to  give  any  adequate  expres- 
sion to  the  anxieties  which  belong  inseparably  to  the 
present  position  in  '  Church  and  State.' 

The  two  conflicting  forces  are,  so  to  speak,  every  hour 
gathering  strength.  The  conflicting  forces  are  the  Spiritual 
and  the  Temporal  powers.  The  Temporal  power  gathers 
strength  from  many  sources  which  I  need  not  number. 
The  Spiritual  power  gathers  strength  in  being  forced  back 
upon  its  principles,  religious  and  constitutional. 

But,  as  yet,  it  appears  to  me  that,  so  far  as  we  have 
gone,  the  disposition  is  to  have  recourse  by  way  of  remedy 
to  the  often  tried  but  ever  failing  machinery  of  expedient, 
rather  than  to  the  simple  affirmation  and  vindication  of 
the  first  principles  of  a  Divine  trust. 

For  in  every  people  to  which  Christianity  has  come 
there  have  been,  since  the  evening  of  the  Day  of  the 
Resurrection,  and  will  be  to  the  end  of  time,  by  ordinance 
of  God,  two  jurisdictions  ;  that  is,  two  settings  forth  of 

*  The  Speech  here  reprinted  was  withdrawn  from  Notices  of  Motion, 
Sess.  May  17,  1889,  in  consequence  of  continued  pressure  of  business  before 
the  House  ;  and  deferred  for  a  future  opportunity,  which  it  has  not  been  in 
my  power  to  command. 


96 

law :  one  of  law  as  concerned  directly  with  the  things 
of  time  only,  the  other  of  law  as  concerned  directly  with 
the  things  of  time  and  of  eternity.  The  first  jurisdiction 
is  called  '  Secular  ; '  the  second  is  called  '  Spiritual.'  Both 
are,  under  God,  administered  by  man.  The  first  by  rule 
and  order  of  the  Authority  Temporal,  the  second  by  rule 
and  order  of  the  Authority  Spiritual,  into  whose  hands  it 
was  committed  by  our  Lord. 

It  is  the  happiest  condition  of  a  people  when  the  two 
jurisdictions  are  found  in  active  exercise,  but  not  inter- 
fering the  one  with  the  other:  the  happiest  because  the 
condition  nearest  to  the  ordinance  of  God.  I  say  '  nearest 
to  the  ordinance  of  God  '  because  the  abiding  imperfection 
of  our  common  nature  does  not  admit  of  the  existence 
in  any  unbroken  permanence,  in  passing  through  man's 
hands,  of  the  exact  representation  among  men  of  an 
ordinance  of  God. 

But  in  the  same  proportion  as  the  representation  is  one 
of  active  exercise  but  not  of  interference  on  either  side, 
the  people  with  whom  this  representation  is  found  comes 
nearest  to  the  ordinance  of  God. 

Now  there  is  no  people  in  whose  history  the  proper 
exercise  of  the  two  jurisdictions  has  been  found  more 
provided  for  than  in  the  constitutional  history  of  the 
people  of  England.  The  exercise  of  both  jurisdictions, 
each  in  their  proper  province,  true  independence  and, 
nevertheless,  true  harmony,  under  the  Royalty  of  England. 
For  the  supremacy  of  the  Crown  in  all  causes,  Eccle- 
siastical and  Civil  ^  means  that  the  Crown  as  the  fountain, 
under  God,  of  all  justice,  is  charged  with  the  careful 
keeping  of  the  two  jurisdictions,  and  with  the  careful 
guarding  against  all  undue  interference  of  the  one  with 
the  other. 

Take  away  the  due  exercise  of  the  two  jurisdictions, 
each  in  its  proper  province,  true  independence,  and,  never- 
theless, true  harmony,  and  you  have  utter  confusion  ;  and 

''  '  In  all  causes,  Ecclesiastical  and  Civil,  within  these  her  Dominions 
supreme.' — The  Bidding  Prayer. 


97 

will  have  done  more  to  destroy  '  Church  and  State '  than 
by  any  other  process  to  which  you  can  apply  yourself. 

Now  then  what  has  become,  for  the  last  fifty-seven 
years,  of  the  two  jurisdictions  ?  They  have  become  one 
jurisdiction  by  the  legislation  of  1832-3,  and  after  years. 
That  jurisdiction  is,  in  all  its  substance  and  power,  wholly 
temporal.  Assessorship  of  the  spiritualty  is  a  myth  : 
a  thing  shadowless,  being  unsubstantial,  and  deluding  the 
unwary  and  confiding  mind. 

This  being  the  position,  the  Resolution  I  have  to  move 
prays  for  the  convening  of  a  National  Synod  of  the  two 
provinces  of  Canterbury  and  York  '  in  the  present  distress.' 

The  distress  is  not  present  only,  but  of  many  years' 
experience  ;  and  is  filled  with  utmost  cause  for  deepest 
anxiety  in  respect  of  the  due  subsistence  of  the  relations 
between  '  Church  and  State.' 

It  dates  more  particularly  from  1832-3  to  1888-9  inclu- 
sive—fifty-seven years.  More  generally,  from  the  closing 
the  doors  of  the  Convocations  or  Synods  of  England  in 

1717- 

It  has  two  aspects— one,  in  respect  of  the  transfer  of 

final  appeal  in  causes  of  doctrine  and  discipline  to  a  lay 
tribunal  (I  dismiss  the  question  of  '  spiritual  assessorship,' 
as  being  in  principle  wrong,  and  in  practice  a  vain  and 
self-stultifying  expedient)  ;  the  other,  in  respect  of  sundry 
matters  of  ritual  and  ceremonial  alleged  before,  and  pro- 
nounced by,  that  tribunal  to  be  offences  against  '  Church 
and  State'  demanding  correction,  and,  if  not  corrected, 
demanding  penalty. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  paper  drawn  up  for  me  by  an 
eminent  legal  firm  in  London,  giving  account  of  the 
spiritual  element  in  all  causes  spiritual  from  1832-3  to 
1888  inclusive,  brought  before  the  Judicial  Committee  of 
Privy  Council.  Copies  of  it  are  laid  upon  the  table  of  the 
Housed 

It  is  to  be  observed  upon  it  that  what  there  came  to  be 

«  See  Paper  printed  at  end  of  this  Appendix,  p.  119. 
H 


98 

afterwards  even  of  assessorship  of  the  spiritualty  was  of 
late  and  uncertain  introduction. 

The  transfer  of  judicial  authority  from  'spiritual'  to 
'  temporal  '  in  causes  of  doctrine  and  discipline  is  then  the 
distress  precedent.  The  condemnation  of  certain  rites  and 
ceremonies  connected  with  the  administration  of  the  Holy 
Sacraments  ^  is  the  distress  subsequent  and  consequent. 

For  many  years  last  past  '  proceedings  at  law '  with 
view  to  such  condemnation  have  been  confined  to  priests. 
These  have  now  assumed  their  most  aggravated  shape  in 
being  directed  against  bishops  :  the  Bishops  of  London 
and  Lincoln.  In  the  case  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  upon 
his  alleged  non-observance  of  a  certain  requirement  of  law  ; 
in  the  case  of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  upon  his  alleged 
disobedience  to  law.  For  the  nature  and  substance  of  the 
attempt,  these  are,  as  directed  against  priest,  or  bishop, 
mutatis  mutandis,  the  same  in  both  cases. 

Having  been  subject,  in  my  own  person,  to  '  proceedings 
at  law,'  first,  in  respect  of  the  doctrine  of  '  the  Real  Pre- 
sence,' from  January  1854  to  February  1858  ;  having  been 
spared  to  teach  the  doctrine  of  '  the  Real  Presence,'  now 
thirty-one  years  since  1858,  precisely  as  I  was  condemned 
for  teaching  it  in  1856  ;  having,  again,  been  the  subject  of 
question  about  '  rite  and  ceremony,'  not  in  my  own  person, 
but  in  that  of  my  curate,  in  1871-2  ;  having  caused  the 
case  to  be  carried  into  the  Archbishop's  Court  at  Lambeth, 
and  having  there  recovered  my  curate's  licence  by  the 
judgment  of  the  late  Archbishop  ;  and,  finally,  having 
used  the  same  ritual  and  ceremonial  ever  since,  I  submit 
that  it  is  not  unreasonable  that,  in  this  hour  of  general 
and  pervading  distress,  coming  out  of  the  operation  of  the 
distress  precedent,  and  exhibited  in  the  distress  consequent 
in  like  'proceedings'  against  bishops,  L  should  pray 
attention  to  what  is,  I  believe,  at  once,  the  true  and  the 

^  Prayer  for  the  Church  Militant :  '  Give  grace,  O  heavenly  Father,  to 
all  Bishops  and  Curates,  that  they  may,  both  by  their  life  and  doctrine,  set 
forth  Thy  true  and  lively  Word  ;  and  rightly  and  duly  administer  Thy  holy 
Sacraments.' 


99 

only  way — I  do  not  say  of  return  to  '  unity,'  for  that  has 
never  yet  subsisted  amongst  us— but  to  that  comparative 
peace  which  may,  in  the  mercies  of  God,  issue  in  some 
approach  to  unity. 

For,  as  matters  have  stood  with  us  now  for  many  years,  it 
is  not  only  lack  of  anything  that  can  be  called  peace,  but 
on  one  side  of  the  two  parties  to  the  conflict,  and  on  one 
side  only,  the  active  presence  of  abiding,  growing,  and  in- 
creasing estrangement  and  hostility — of  what  it  is  not  too 
much  to  call  quasi-religious  civil  war,  everywhere  present 
amongst  us,  and  before  the  world.  We  may  repudiate  the 
statement,  but  we  cannot  escape  from  its  truth. 

Under  such  circumstances  of  position,  to  associate  our- 
selves for  purposes  of  unity  inside  and  outside  England 
has  always  appeared  to  me,  may  I  say  it  without  offence, 
almost  a  mockery— I  mean,  to  be  doing  this  in  the  face  of 
our  actual,  and,  so  to  speak,  our  normal  condition  at  home, 
without,  first  of  all,  giving  ourselves  to  the  doing  of  all  that 
it  lies  in  our  power  to  do  towards  healing  the  distress 
precedent  and  consequent  which  meets  and  half  paralyses 
us  at  every  turn  ;  which  has  built,  and  is  building  up  more 
and  more  every  day,  barriers  amongst  us  at  home,  and 
abroad  in  all  the  dependencies  of  England,  barriers  not  of 
God's  building.  All  this  is  a  thing  in  which,  I  respectfully 
submit  to  the  House,  we  can  hardly  be  content  to  acqui- 
esce—a position  in  which  it  is  difficult  to  understand  acqui- 
escence under  any  circumstances— one  in  which  I,  for 
one,  find  it  impossible  to  discover  any  sound  ground  of 
acquiescence. 

No  doubt  we  may  find  ourselves,  after  adducing  all  our 
manifold  reasons  and  pleadings  for  a  hearing,  unable  to 
persuade  the  governing  powers  to  assist  us  in  our  attempt 
to  remove  the  causes  of  the  distress  precedent  and  conse- 
quent ;  and  the  prospects  of  '  no  success '  may  be  used  — 
as  is  not  uncommon  with  us — as  an  argument  against  the 
attempt. 

I  submit  respectfully  that,  in  matters  of  duty  to  God  and 
His  Church,  there  is  no  room  at  all  for  any  such  argument. 

H  2 


lOO 

And  that,  when  we  have  humbly  and  duly  prayed  to  be 
heard,  then,  but  not  till  then,  we  stand  in  our  true  position 
as  an  integral  part  of  '  the  Church  by  representation '  so 
far  as  that  position  rests  with  us. 

Again,  I  submit  respectfully  that  to  teach,  to  preach 
publicly  the  Word  of  God  by  word,  by  act,  by  example  of 
life,  as  we  have  the  truth  drawn  for  us,  and  committed  to  us, 
by  the  Church  from  the  fountain  of  truth — the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures— to  do  all  this,  according  to  our  light,  is  one  thing. 
To  denounce  and  assail  others,  and  expel  them  from  their 
ministry  because  we  will  not  endure  their  way  of  worship, 
their  way  of  receiving  and  abiding  by  '  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer,  and  administration  of  the  Sacraments,  and 
other  Rites  and  Ceremonies,  of  the  Church,  according  to 
the  use  of  the  Church  of  England,'  this  is  another  thing. 
The  first  has  been  the  covipreJietisivc  character  of  the 
Church  of  England  for  some  300  years  ;  the  second  is  the 
exclusive  character  of  the  Church  of  England,  now  for 
many  years  insisted  upon  and  made  matter  of  infliction  of 
civil  penalty  on  the  one  side  ;  of  demand  impossible  to  be 
complied  with  on  the  other. 

One  word  here  upon  the  term  *  comprehensive  character.' 
I  have  seen  it  applied  as  a  ground  why  '  Ritualism  '  ought 
not  to  be  interfered  with  ab  extra.  I  am  unable  to  accept 
the  argument  so  applied.  I  submit  that  it  is  deroga- 
tory to  our  position,  and,  more  than  this,  that  it  is  un- 
sound. '  Ritualism,'  so  called,  if  anything,  is  a  part  of 
Catholicism.  Catholicism  comprehends,  but  cannot  be 
comprehended.  There  is  nothing  in  the  world  to  com- 
prehend it.  It  stands  upon  its  own  natural  and  inherent 
right  as  the  outward  expression  and  manifestation  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Sacraments,  and  of  worship  and  adoration 
due. 

What  I  have  to  say  in  support  of  the  resolution  is  more 
or  less  not  new.  But  let  me  hope  that  I  need  no  apology 
for  saying  it  nevertheless.  Members  of  Convocation  do 
not  speak,  being  members  of  a  House,  which  is  part  of 
*  the  Church  by  representation,'  to  ourselves  only  ;    and 


lor 


I  would,  as  far  as   I  may,  speak  to  those  outside  these 
walls  also. 

It  is  my  humble  hope  and  prayer  that  no  word  of  mine 
to-day  may  give  reasonable  cause  for  offence  to  any 
man. 

I  desire  to  deal  with  facts  only  ;  not  with  imputation  of 
motives.  I  am  a  Ritualist;  not  of  a  very  large  and  uni- 
form  type.  My  priest's  life  began  too  early  for  that  ;  but, 
in  respect  of  the  Doctrine «  which  is  the  fountain  of 
'  Ritualism,'  I  have  never  at  any  time  had  but  one  under- 
standing and  one  belief  I  am  an  English  Churchman. 
I  have  never  for  one  moment  known  the  temptation,  nor 
ever  been  able  to  understand  what  it  is  to  others,  to  desert 
England  for  Rome.  So  much  for  myself;  I  believe, 
that  having  regard  to  what  I  am  endeavouring  to  do,  it  is 
my  duty  to  all  to  say  it  in  few  words ;  and  having  said  it, 
I  will  not  revert  to  it. 

The  light  of  that  blessed  time.  Acts  ii.  41-7;  iv.  32  f, 
falls  still  upon  the  Churches  out  of  the  Word  of  God,  and 
through  them— though,  for  the  sins  of  the  baptized  into 

'  The  Doctrine  of  the  Real  Presence,  Spiritual,  not  Corporal. 

'  '  Then  they  that  gladly  received  his  word  were  baptized  :  and  the  same 
day  there  were  added  unto  them  about  three  thousand  souls. 

'And  they  continued  stedfastly  in  the  apostles'  doctrine  and  fellowship, 
and  in  breaking  of  bread,  and  in  prayers.  And  fear  came  upon  every  soul : 
and  many  wonders  and  signs  were  done  by  the  apostles. 

'  And  all  that  believed  were  together,  and  had  all  things  common  ; 

'And  sold  their  possessions  and  goods,  and  parted  them  to  all  men,  as 
every  man  hath  need. 

'And  they,  continuing  daily  with  one  accord  in  the  temple,  and  breaking 
bread  from  house  to  house,  did  eat  their  meat  with  gladness  and  singleness 
of  heart. 

'  Praising  God,  and  having  favour  with  all  the  people.  And  the  Lord 
added  to  the  Church  daily  *  such  as  should  be  saved. 

'And  the  multitude  of  them  that  believed  were  of  one  heart  and  of  one 
soul  :  neither  said  any  of  them  that  ought  of  the  things  which  he  possessed 
was  his  own  ;  but  they  had  all  things  common. ' 

*  '  Those  that  were  being  saved.' — Revised  Version.  Qy.  '  the  saved.' 
'  The  like  figure  whereunto  even  Baptism  doth  also  now  save  us.' 

'  Then  they  that  gladly  received  his  word  were  baptised ;  and  the  same 
day  were  added  unto  them  about  three  thousand  souls.' 


102 

Christ,  it  be  very  dim — upon  the  world  not  yet  within  their 
pale. 

As  for  the  way  to  that  light,  it  is,  as  it  were,  written 
upon  the  wall  for  us  all,  whatever  be  the  particular  form  or 
manner  of  our  religion.  '  Be  at  peace  among  yourselves  ' 
— and,  again,  as  respects  all  other  men,  '  Follow  peace  with 
all  men.* 

There  is  one  consideration,  preliminary  to  the  dealing 
with  the  distress  which  is  the  burden  now  well-nigh  weigh- 
ing us  down  ;  preliminary  to  the  consideration  of  the  course 
of  carrying  differences  of  belief  and  worship  to  the  extent 
of  ecclesiastical  ostracism  in  case  after  case  of  priests,  and 
from  this  to  imprisonment ;  a  system  of  procedure  now 
proposed  to  be  adopted  towards  and  against  the  Bishop  of 
Lincoln.  It  is  suggested  by  our  presence  together  in  this 
House,  and  by  our  constitutional  common  membership  of 
it  as  summoned  by  royal  writ.  No  doubt  it  is  a  '  reductio 
ad  absurdum  ; '  but  this  is  often  a  light  helpful  in  an  argu- 
ment upon  gravest  things. 

By  the  rule  of  promoting  'proceedings  at  law,'  as  these 
are  now  promoted  and  accepted  and  adjudicated  upon  in 
causes  spiritual  by  a  court  temporal,  some  of  us  are  not 
in  our  proper  place  in  Convocation — some  of  us  are  not 
worthy  to  sit  there,  because  we  are  *  Ritualists,'  under  all 
circumstances  abiding  in  our  '  Ritualism  ' — our  proper  place 
is  not  here  ;  it  is  in  prison.  For  many  sit  here  as  beneficed 
clergy,  having  their  own  parish  churches — some  of  us  (not 
nearly  as  many  as  there  should  be  in  due  proportion  to  the 
official  members  of  the  House)  as  chosen  to  represent  con- 
stituencies of  clergy.  If,  then,  no  beneficed  clergyman, 
being  a  *  Ritualist,'  and  using  '  Ritualism  '  in  his  church,  is 
fit  to  be  beneficed,  how  is  he  fit  to  sit  where  he  must  be 
beneficed  ? 

But,  in  this  move  against  bishops,  we  hear  nothing,  as 
yet,  about  a  move  against  us  in  this  House,  nor  from  with- 
out this  House,  in  our  capacity  as  members  of  it ;  and  yet 
this  House  is  -a  part  of  '  the  Church  by  representation  ; ' 
and,  by  the  logic  of  the  '  anti-Ritualist,'  there  are  members 


103 

of  this  House  fit  objects  of  exclusion  from  it ;  yes,  and  of 
imprisonment,  as  disobeying  anti-Ritualist  law. 

I  am  one  of  these.  Now  I  am  quite  ready  that  the 
procedure  should  begin  with  me,  as,  I  think,  the  oldest 
member  of  this  House.  But,  I  confess,  I  should  prefer 
its  not  taking  place  before  any  existing  court. 

The  proceedings  against  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  partake 
also  of  the  ludicrous.  As  bishop,  he  is  judge  of  Ritual  in 
his  own  diocese.  His  answer  to  those  who  do  accuse  him 
is  that  his  contention  is,  not — as  a  good  many  are  found 
to  say — about  things  of  no  importance — an  imputation 
which,  I  observe  in  passing,  is,  under  all  its  aspects,  about 
the  weakest  of  all  imputations — but  for  primary  principles 
of  Church  truth,  and  the  teaching  of  them,  not  by  word 
only,  but  also  by  observance  of  rite  and  ceremony,  i.e. 
by  what  is  nicknamed  '  Ritualism.'  Now,  in  one  degree 
or  another,  every  priest  is  a  '  Ritualist '  whether  he  wear 
a  surplice  and  a  stole,  or  a  surplice  only.  It  is  the  par- 
ticular '  Ritualism  '  attaching  to  the  administration  of  the 
Sacraments  which  is  assailed  as  a  relic  of  and  guide  to 
Popery  f?.  Now  it  is  neither  of  these  things.  It  is  simply 
the  inheritance  of  the  Church  of  England  Re-formed— an 
inheritance  long  time  neglected,  now  recalled  into  life,  and 
of  great  value,  as  true  to  the  constitution  of  our  common 
nature,  which  calls  for  outward  expression  in  proportion 
to  the  depth  and  cogency  of  belief ;  and  therein  may  not 
be  neglected,  much  less  converted  into  ground  of  accusa- 
tion of  unfaithfulness. 

But  if  there  must  be  such  accusation,  then  it  should,  in 
all  reason,  be  directed  against  the  fons  et  origo  of  the  ac- 
cusing cry,  Le.  against  the  doctrine  of  the  Sacraments  so 
expressed,  and  taught,  and  impressed. 

Now  it  is  curious  to  note  that  the  accusation  against 
the  doctrine  of  the  'Real  Presence'  has  broken  down 
even  before  the  Judicial  Committee  of  Privy  Council  ; 
resort,  therefore,  is  had  by  the  'anti-Ritualist'  to  the 
expression    of  it    in    act,    that    is,    by,    '  rite    and    cere- 

B  C.  p.  19,  A. 


I04 

mony,'  as  to  an  easier  way  to  a  successful  appeal  ad 
popiduDi. 

On  our  part,  we  have  no  purpose,  not  so  much  as 
a  thought,  of  seeking  to  force  by  '  proceedings  at  law,' 
'  rite  and  ceremony '  upon  those  who  reject  them,  or  think 
that  it  is  better  not  to  use  them— no,  nor  of  calling  in  the 
law  to  force  upon  them  so  much  as  a  more  exact  obser- 
vance of  the  Rubrics  of  the  Prayer  Book  in  many  and 
sundry  particulars.  Proceedings  at  law  are  not,  never 
have  been,  never  can  be,  in  matter  of  religion,  the  way 
of  peace. 

On  the  other  hand,  all  that  we  ask  for  ourselves  is  that 
we  be  not  sought  to  be  forced  by  legislative  act  and 
judicial  sentence  of  a  temporal  Court — so  far  as  'pro- 
ceedings at  law' can  force  any  man  in  a  matter  of  religious 
conscience — to  abandon,  for  ourselves  and  our  people, 
what  is,  so  to  speak,  imbedded  in  our  belief. 

We  say  that  to  seek  so  to  force  us  is  inequitable  ;  we 
say  that  it  is  unjust;  we  say  that  it  is  uncharitable;  we 
say  that  it  is  cruel  ;  we  say,  in  sum,  that  it  is  rending 
already  in  part,  and,  if  persevered  in,  must  issue  in  rending 
throughout,  in  two,  or  many  more  than  two,  the  Church 
of  England.  That  this  will  be  the  return  made  unto  God 
by  the  English  people  for  the  gift  of  His  Church  to  the 
English  people. 

I  sum  up  what  1  have  said  about  the  Bishops.  The 
charges  against  them  are  frivolous  and  vexatious.  They 
have,  unhappily,  not  been  estimated  at  their  true  value. 
But,  supposing  the  charges  in  the  event  to  be  rightly 
judged  to  be  '  frivolous  and  vexatious,'  the  real  distress 
of  the  Church  remains  where  it  was.  For  this  see  letter 
following,  addressed  to  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops,  and 
widely  circulated. 

Committee  Room,  3  Adam  Street,  Adelphi,  W.C, 
December  15,  1888. 

My  Lord, — Will  you  allow  me  in  your  kindness  to 
lay  before  you  what  is  the  substance  of  the  movement  of 


105 

November  13,  1888,  called  'Declaration  and  Remon- 
strance ? ' 

It  is  a  movement  conceived,  and,  so  far,  being  now 
carried  out,  for  recovery  of  the  true  discipline  of  the 
Church  of  England — viz.  '  Spiritual  Causes  by  Spiritual 
Judges^' — being  the  one  true  and  lawful  discipline. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  do  more  than  revert  to 
the  well-known  circumstances  of  the  substitution  of  the 
Judicial  Committee  of  Privy  Council  for  the  Court  of 
Delegates  in  1832-3,  and  how  it  was  that,  through  a  Par- 
liamentary inadvertence,  '  causes  ecclesiastical '  passed, 
with  probate,  divorce,  maritime  causes,  &c.,  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Judicial  Committee  ;  and  a  false  disci- 
pline was  created  ;  is  now  quasi-established,  and  in  active 
exercise  of  its  functions. 

All  past  and  present  'legal  proceedings'  of  the  nature 
referred  to  in  '  Declaration  and  Remonstrance'  are  '  neces- 
sary accidents  '  of  this  false  discipline. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  '  right  use  of  ecclesiastical  disci- 
pline'  being  one  of  the  three  notes  of  a  true  Church', 
I  submit,  very  respectfully,  that  the  time  is  fully  come 
when  archbishops,  bishops,  clergy,  and  laity,  may  be  asked 
to  unite  in  moving  steadily  and  continuously  for  recovery 
of  the  true  discipline — viz.  '  Spiritual  Causes  by  Spiritual 
Judges  ' — a  discipline  which  alone  can  commend  and  com- 
mand a  loyal  obedience. 

May  I  add  that  I  am  unable  to  comprehend  how  it  is 
possible,  under  the  present  position  and  exercise  of  the  so- 
called  '  Ecclesiastical  Discipline,'  for  '  Church  and  State  ' 
to  continue  in  that  harmony  of  purpose  and  act  given  of 
God  to  be  preserved  and  cherished  by  the  English  people  ? 

In  the  hope  of  contributing  something  at  least  towards 
staying  the  unhealthy  craving  for  what  is  called  'Disestab- 
lishment,' but  which  is  really  nothing  else  but  an  invention 
by  man  of  a  substitute  for  the  Providence  of  God ;  and  in 

''  24  Henry  VIII.  c.  12. 
Second  Tart  of  Homily,  Concerning  the  Holy  Ghost,  pp.  494-5-    London, 
1864. 


io6 

the  further  hope  of  promoting  peace  among  ourselves,  if  it 
be  not  yet  for  us  to  rejoice  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  I  pray 
humbly  that  your  Lordship  will  allow  me  to  place  this 
letter  in  your  hands. 

I  am,  my  Lord, 

Your  humble  and  faithful  servant, 

George  Anthony  Denison, 
A  rdideacon  of  Taunton  and  Chairman  of  Committee. 

To  the  Lord  Bishop  of 


We  are  living,  have  been  living  for  many  years,  under 
a  false  discipline. 

That  so-called  discipline  remains.  The  false  and  un- 
constitutional discipline  which  is  the  distress  precedent ; 
and  has  issued  in  a  kindred  false  and  unconstitutional  ad- 
ministration, which  is  the  distress  consequent. 

Of  both  these  heads  of  distress  it  is  the  second  that  has 
commanded  most  attention  and  called  forth  continuous 
remonstrance.  This  is  only  natural  ;  because  details  press 
more  upon  the  general  mind  than  the  source  from  which 
they  spring.  But,  after  all,  it  is  the  principle,  and  not  the 
detail,  which  is  important.  If  the  principle  is  abandoned 
as  unconstitutional,  the  practice  falls  with  it ;  if  the  prin- 
ciple be  maintained,  the  practice  survives  and  becomes 
a  settled  order  with  it. 

The  defence  of  the  practice  then,  not  being  strong  in 
itself,  looks  for  extraneous  support,  and  relies  mainly 
upon  the  imputation  that  a  '  Ritualist '  is  a  lawless  man  ; 
an  offender  against  the  law  of  the  land  ;  and  therefore 
a  proper  object  of  punishment;  that  it  is,  no  doubt,  very 
painful  to  have  to  inflict  punishment  upon  him,  but  that 
it  is  a  stern  necessity  and  an  imperative  duty. 

Now  there  are  five  parties  to  the  consideration  of  what 
these  allegations  are  worth  ;  to  the  consideration  of  this 
alleged  necessity  and  duty  as  before  God  and  man. 


107 

1.  There  is  the  Church  of  England  in  her  constitutional 
position  of  '  Church  and  State  ; '  observe  not  *  State  and 
Church,'  but  '  Church  and  State,'  as  set  forth  in  her  Parha- 
ment,  as  set  forth  in  her  Prayer  Book  and  her  Articles,  and 
committed  to  her  Archbishops  and  Bishops  in  Synod  and 
in  Parliament.  To  her  Priests  in  Synod,  as  representing 
the  priesthood. 

2.  There  is  the  legislature  in  respect  of  temporal  Courts 
of  judicature  ;  of  Courts  absorbing  and  abrogating  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Courts  spiritual. 

3.  There  is  the  accuser  promoting. 

4.  There  is  the  Court  temporal  punishing. 

5-  There  is  the  priest  and  the  bishop  suffering  ;  and 
this  upon  the  charge  of  anyone  who  may  think,  ex  mero 
motu,  or  be  deceived  by  others  into  thinking,  that  he  is 
competent  to  hold  the  office  and  to  do  the  work  of  accuser. 

Of  these  five  parties  the  first  has  never  been  asked  for 
its  judgment  at  all.  The  fifth  has  got  to  suffer.  The 
second,  third,  and  fourth  have  had,  and  mean  to  hold,  if 
they  can,  all  their  own  way.  It  is  enough  for  them  that 
it  is  '  law  of  the  land  '  that  it  should  so  be.  How  that 
law  has  been  arrived  at  ;  whether  it  be  agreeable  or  not  to 
the  constitution  in  '  Church  and  State,'  whether  it  be  'just,' 
'equitable,'  'convenient,'  '  wise/  these  things  are  not  things 
for  them  to  consider. 

For  there  arc  laws  and  laws  ;  laws  of  the  land  and  laws 
of  the  land. 

Now  in  the  matter  before  us.  which,  suffer  me  to  say,  is 
the  primary  and  central  concern  of  this  House,  there'  is 
a  law  of  the  land,  a  good  many  hundred  years  old,  govern- 
ing the  mutual  relations  of  the  Spiritualty  and  the  Tem- 
poralty  ;  a  law  not  repealed,  the  law  of  the  co-ordinate 
jurisdiction  of  the  two  elements  of  the  Constitution,  the 
Spiritualty,  and  the  Temporalty,  each  having  its  own  pro- 
vince, its  own  courts,  its  own  subject-matter ;  each  finally, 
as  respects  matters  within  its  own  province,  advising  the 
law  24  Henry  VHI.  c.  12. 

Out  of  these  concurrent  jurisdictions,  combining  together 


io8 

for  the  true  purposes  of  '  Church  and  State,'  have  come  the 
Engh'sh  Bible,  the  Prayer  Book,  the  Articles  of  the  Church 
of  England.  These  arc  '  the  threefold  cord  not  quickly 
broken  '  (Eccles.  iv.  12),  and  binding  together  '  Church  and 
State.' 

The  Spiritualty  encroaching  in  nothing  upon  the  Tem- 
poralty.  The  Temporalty  encroaching  in  nothing  upon 
the  Spiritualty.  The  province  of  each  being  definitely 
clear,  and  their  juxtaposition  and  action  combining  to- 
gether, under  the  supremacy  of  the  Crown,  for  the  common 
benefit  of  the  entire  people,  and  preservation  to  it  of  the 
great  gift  of  God  in  '  Church  and  State.' 

The  distress  precedent  then  is  the  absorption  of  the 
Spiritual  authority  in  causes  Spiritual  by  the  Temporal 
element  of  the  Constitution  in  Church  and  State.  The 
printed  paper  which  I  have  brought  with  me  to-day, 
states  in  sum  what  has  been  the  position  of  the  Spiritualty 
in  the  Judicial  Committee  of  Privy  Council  from  1832-3, 
when  that  Committee  came  into  the  place  of  the  Court  of 
Delegates,  to  the  present  time. 

I  ask,  was  this  absorption  made  by  any  concurrent  action 
of  Church  and  State  ?  The  answer  is  that  there  was  no 
thought  even  of  any  such  concurrent  action.  This  was  the 
natural  fruit  of  the  shutting  the  doors  of  Convocation  for 
115  years  up  to  1832.  Hence  the  way  was  open  for  the 
invention  of  the  Judicial  Committee  of  Privy  Council  ;  and 
indeed  when,  for  purposes  of  State  policy,  the  doors  were 
opened  again  in  1852,  I  remember  very  well  what  was 
commonly  reported  to  be  said  by  the  then  Prime  Minister. 
*  If  we  do  not  open  the  doors,  these  men  will  have  a  griev- 
ance :  we  will  open  the  doors  for  them  to  meet  and  talk, 
taking  care  that  they  do  nothing.'  Now  the  absorption 
was,  and  is,  in  direct  contravention  of  the  Reformation 
Statutes,  and  of  the  Prayer  Book  and  Articles  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  has  borne  its  own  proper  fruit 
in  the  distress  that  is  now  upon  us.  Primarily  the  Statute 
24  Henry  VHI.  c.  12,  then  Article  xix.  clause  i,  Article 
XX.  clause  i,  Article  xxxiv. clause  2,  Article  xxxvii.  clause  2. 


109 

The  last  clause  of  ist  division  of  'Concerning  the 
Service  of  the  Church,'  and  that  part  of  the  Preface  of 
Prayer  Book  '  Of  Ceremonies,  why  some  be  abolished  and 
some  retained,'  and,  finally,  the  two  paragraphs  of  the 
'ornaments  rubric' 

Article  xx.,  as  it  stands,  has  been  the  law  of  the  Church 
throughout  the  world  always,  and  herein  the  law  of  the 
land  here  in  England  from  1571  to  1889.  But  this  fact 
was  not  so  regarded,  either  in  the  formation  of  the  Judicial 
Committee,  or  in  the  passing  of  the  'Public  Worship 
Regulation  Act.'  The  fact  that  '  the  Church  hath  power 
to  decree  Rites  or  Ceremonies,  and  Authority  in  Contro- 
versies of  Faith.' 

'  The  Church,'  Article  xix.,  is  defined  to  be  '  a  congrega- 
tion of  faithful  men.'  It  must  of  necessity  have  its  body 
representative  ;  that  body  is  '  the  National  Synod,'  for  the 
convening  of  which  'in  the  present  distress'  I  am  now 
asking  the  House  to  pray.  There  is  also  the  Diocesan, 
and  the  Provincial  Synod,  or  Convocation  of  the  Province. 

And  it  is  to  be  noted  here  that  Burnet,  upon  Article  xx., 
understands  always  the  '  Church  '  to  mean  the  '  Synod  ; ' 
the  body  representative  of  the  '  Spiritualty.' 

Now  that  which  clause  i.  Article  xx.,  declares  is  involved 
or  implied  distinctly  in  others  of  the  Articles.  If  this 
again  were  not  so,  the  thing  expressed  in  the  clause  is  the 
inherent  and  inalienable  right,  claim,  and  property  of  the 
Church  Catholic,  and  therein  of  the  Church  of  England  K 
There  is  nothing  anywhere  in  her  connection  with  the 
civil  power  to  touch  the  spiritual  authority  in  causes 
spiritual— the  legislative  authority  abiding  always  with  the 
Crown  in  Parliament. 

The  thing  declared  and  expressed  in  the  clause  was  the 
battle-ground  between  the  Catholic  and  the  Puritan  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 

''  See  An  Exposition  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  Historical  and  Doctrinal^ 
by  Edward  Harold  Browne,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,  Lord  Bishop  of  Winchester', 
Prelate  of  the  Order  of  the  Garter;  13th  ed.  p.  470;  London,  Longmans, 
Green  &  Co.  1887.  Also  Bishop  Burnet  on  the  XXXIX.  Articles,  Article  XX. 
pp.  270—273,  Oxford,  at  the  University  Press,  1831. 


no 

It  is  the  battle-f^round  in  the  nineteenth  century  between 
the  Church  of  England  and  the  Civil  Power  of  England, 
all  antecedents  notwithstanding.  It  is  sad  to  have  to  add 
that  it  is  the  battle-ground  between  a  large  and  daily  in- 
creasing number  of  Church  people,  clergy  and  laity,  at  this 
moment  centred  round  the  person  and  office  of  the  Bishops 
of  London  and  Lincoln  on  the  one  hand ;  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  a  subsection  of  the  element  '  anti-Ritualist,' 
aided,  encouraged,  abetted  by  the  lay  administration  of 
ecclesiastical  law  for  the  last  half  century. 

We  on  our  side  would  fain  be  at  peace  with  these  our 
brethren,  if  we  may  not  be  *  in  the  unity  of  the  faith '  with 
them.  And  as  an  earnest  of  this  purpose  and  desire  we 
do  not  retaliate.  We  resort  to  no  '  proceedings  at  law '  on 
the  score  of  disobedience  to  the  law  of  the  Prayer  Book, 
because  (i)  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  recognise  the  authority 
of  the  Courts  now  commissioned  by  the  Legislature  to  try 
causes  spiritual ;  and  (2)  because  we  have  no  belief  that 
*  going  to  law  '  about  such  things  has  any  tendency  what- 
soever to  mend  matters,  but  every  tendency  in  the  oppo- 
site direction. 

It  has  been  tried  many  times  before  this  our  own  time 
to  put  down  the  conscience  religious  by  civil  penalty. 
Has  it  ever  succeeded  ?  nay,  has  it  not  always  ignomi- 
niously  failed  ?  No  doubt,  if  you  will  persist  in  creating 
Courts  of  law  for  this  purpose,  you  must  give  your  Courts 
the  power  to  enforce  their  sentence  by  the  infliction  of 
penalties.  But  it  is  the  Legislature  that  makes  the  Courts, 
and  not  the  Courts,  which  has  to  bear  the  blame  of  the 
penalties. 

This  manifold  distress  has  been  creeping  on  many  years 
since  the  huge  design  or  huge  mistake  of  1832-3. 

It  has  now  reached  the  apex  of  its  ascent  in  England. 
In  its  descent  it  carries  with  it  '  Church  and  State.'  Eng- 
land has  now  to  make  up  her  mind  one  way  or  the  other, 
for  a  new  Prayer  Book,  or  for  the  old — for  a  new  so- 
called  Church  or  for  the  old.     England  cannot  have  both. 

The  new  way  rends  at  one   blow  the   Church  in   two 


Ill 

or  in  a  good  many  more  pieces.  The  old  way  rests  upon 
the  Prayer  Book  as  we  have  received  and  keep  it. 

The  old  way  is  the  one  only  way  of  keeping  and  pro- 
moting peace.  We  cannot  have  '  unity  '  between  '  Ritual- 
ist '  and  '  anti-Ritualist.'  It  is  not  among  things  possible 
to  be  had.  If  England  listens  to  the  Church  Association 
and  the  subsection  of  the  '  anti-Ritualist '  section,  we  can- 
not have  so  much  even  as  sufferance.  We  can  have 
nothing  but  *  proceedings  at  law  '  and  penal  consequences 
against  the  '  Ritualist '  element. 

I  believe  England  is  coming  to  her  senses  under  the 
pressure  of  this  great  distress  ;  and  is  going  to  say  that 
the  old  way  is  the  best. 

That  we  want  no  new  Act  of  Parliament,  and  no  inter- 
pretation—  made  law,  with  civil  penalties  against  this  or 
that  holding  of  forms  of  religion.  Ritualist,  anti-Ritualist, 
Nonconformist.  That  the  Courts  Spiritual  of  the  Church 
of  England,  duly  constituted,  are  the  one  sufficient  means 
of  trial  and  appeal  in  and  of  every  cause  spiritual  within 
the  Church  of  England.  That  this  is  the  constitutional 
position  ;  that  it  is  the  one  only  reasonable  position — the 
one  only  position  which  carries  with  it  any  sound  prospect 
of  goodwill  and  peace,  where  unity  cannot  be  had. 

The  present  eating-out  process,  by  way  of  case  after 
case,  issuing  at  last  in  these  cases  of  Bishops,  which  I 
suppose  there  were  very  few  who  anticipated,  but  which, 
all  the  precedents  considered,  are  now  perceived  to  be  only 
the  natural  issue  of  a  destructive  policy,  these  things  are 
now  at  last  forced  from  without  upon  our  consideration, 
our  anxious  and  painful  consideration.  The  present  posi- 
tion, the  growth  of  fifty-seven  years,  comes  before  the 
people  under  the  name  of  law.  As  matter  of  modern  fact 
it  is  law  of  the  land  ;  as  matter  of  the  Constitution  in 
Church  and  State  it  is  not  law  of  the  land. 

The  people  of  England  love  law,  and  are  very  slow  to 
question  it  in  whatever  shape  it  is  presented  to  them. 
But  a  great  constitutional  question  demands  close  his- 
torical  inquiry,  and  a  considerable  amount  of   historical 


112 

logic.  The  logic  of  the  English  citizen  generally  cannot 
be  said  to  be  historical. 

Now  where  there  is  this  lack  of  historical  logic  upon 
which  to  refresh  and  invigorate  the  mental  powers,  people 
require  to  be  supplied  carefully  with  the  sound  article.  If 
this  be  not  done,  they  fall  an  easy  prey  to  the  most 
extravagant  fallacies. 

I  notice  briefly  three  : 

1.  There  is  '  the  small  things  '  fallacy.  Now  '  Ritualism  * 
is  not,  cannot  be,  a  small  thing  to  the  Ritualist.  It  is  to 
him  a  part  of  a  precious  inheritance,  having  its  own  special 
privileges,  duties,  uses,  and  purposes.  I  submit,  then,  that 
men  do  not,  in  the  common  experience  of  our  nature, 
suffer  the  heaviest  losses  they  can  suffer  in  these  times  in 
respect  of  doctrine  and  discipline  for  a  'small  thing' — 
a  thing,  as  it  is  called,  'of  no  consequence.'  Neither,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  it  a  '  small  thing  '  to  the  anti-Ritualist. 

In  his  eyes  it  includes,  besides  itself,  a  great  many 
things  I  will  not  here  mention. 

2.  There  is  '  the  name  '  fallacy.  The  common  substitu- 
tion of  '  Ritualist '  for  '  High  Churchman  ' — intending  the 
same  thing  in  substance,  but  expressing  it  differently,  so 
that  the  stigma  intended  becomes  attached  primarily  and 
principally  to  the  employment  of  palpable  objects  of  the 
outward  sense. 

Now  let  me  say  this  \  Some  forty  years  ago,  being  in 
much  communication  and  company  with  the  men  then 
called  '  High  Churchmen,'  I  began  to  keep  a  list  of  those 
who  left  England  for  Rome.  I  kept  it  a  good  many  years, 
and  then  in  my  distress  and  weariness,  I  burnt  it. 

But  before  burning  it,  I  looked  it  through  once  more 
very  closely,  and  found  that  near  two-thirds  of  the  names 
upon  the  list  had  not  begun  their  diaconate  and  priesthood 
in  the  Church  of  England  as  '  High  Churchmen  '  at  all. 

3.  Lastly,  there  is  the  'law-breaking'  fallacy — the  com- 
monest and  most  easily  deluding  of  all  fallacies — the  fal- 

'  C.  p.  9,  A. 


113 

lacy  of  *  proving  too  much.'  I  call  it,  for  clearness  sake, 
'the  Grimthorpe  fallacy;'  and  sum  up  its  operation  here 
in  fewest  words. 

It  would  persuade  the  unwary — a  very  large  section,  in 
these  matters,  of  the  English  people — that  not  only,  as  is 
true,  the  right  of  saying  what  is,  or  what  is  not,  or  what 
shall  be,  or  shall  not  be,  *  law  of  the  land,'  resides  exclusively 
with  the  Crown  in  Parliament,  but  also  the  right  of  saying 
to  the  Spiritualty  what  shall,  or  shall  not,  be  the  substance 
of  the  law  of  the  land  in  respect  of  controverted  matters  of 
doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church  of  England,  as  is 
not  true. 

This  last  fallacy  may  be  said,  not  certainly  by  way  of 
good  pre-eminence,  to  be  the  cardinal  fallacy  of  the  history 
of  the  nineteenth  century  in  the  history  of  England. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  distress  precedent  at  that  coming 
out  of  the  absorption  by  the  Court  Temporal  of  the  con- 
stitutional authority  and  action  of  the  Court  Spiritual. 

It  is  self-evident  what  many,  nevertheless,  will  not,  many 
more  do  not,  see,  that  no  one  of  the  many  questions  which 
have  been  publicly  raised  in  this  controversy  is  at  most 
more  than  a  subordinate  question — a  question  of  detail 
only,  in  comparison  with  the  great  primary  question  of 
'  the  power  of  the  Church  ' — that  is,  of  the  Synod  of  the 
two  Provinces  of  Canterbury  and  York  {a)  '  to  decree  Rites 
and  Ceremonies,'  and  (d)  of  its  '  authority  in  controversies 
of  faith  ; '  and  that  nothing  can  be  hoped  for  from  expedi- 
ents of  detail  in  the  room  of  a  steady  endeavour  to  recover 
and  invigorate  the  principle,  out  of  which  the  details  flow 
as  from  a  fountain-head. 

But  it  is  certainly  not  matter  of  surprise  that  the  Church 
of  England,  having  lost  her  Synods  for  135  years  (17 17 — 
1852),  and,  when  allowed  to  sit  again  by  Royal  writ  for 
despatch  of  business,  finding  itself  with  its  hands  tied  in 
Synod,  should  very  generally  have  lost  almost  the  know- 
ledge of  what  a  Synod  is,  and  of  what  belongs  to  it,  under 
the  express  authority  of  its  own  formularies. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  distress  consequent,  as  inflicting 

I 


114 

penalties  upon  the  '  Ritualist,'  and  having  made  the  Church 
of  England  for  the  first  rime  exclusive  in  his  person. 
These  are  historical  facts. 

There  is  a  third  aspect  of  distress,  compounded  of  the 
precedent  and  the  consequent.  It  is  not  yet  formally- 
announced,  nor  is  it  formally  developed  ;  but  that  it  is  in 
considerable  operation  cannot  be  denied.  That  operation 
IS  the  steady  and  continuous  effect  upon  '  the  book  of 
Common  Prayer  and  administration  of  the  Sacraments  and 
other  Rites  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church  according  to 
the  use  of  the  Church  of  England.' 

Eor  decisions  in  the  Courts,  as  now  constituted,  decisions 
in  one  sense  legal,  in  another  and  larger  sense  illegal,  do, 
all  the  illegality  alleged  against  them  notwithstanding,  lay 
very  strong  hold  on  the  popular  mind,  which  cannot  be 
expected  to  look  very  deeply  into  the  matter  in  controversy, 
and  takes  refuge  under  high  names  and  positions  of  public 
trust,  so  soon  as  these  are  formally  constituted  and  recog- 
nised by  the  governing  powers  of  the  country. 

I  may  dismiss  safely  the  prospect  of  Parliament  initiating 
or  even  taking  in  hand  any  alteration  in  the  Prayer  Book, 
in  its  preface,  text,  rubrics.  Parliament  is  too  wise  not  to 
perceive  that  any  move  of  this  nature  proposes  and  implies 
the  wrecking  of  the  Constitution  in  '  Church  and  State  ;  * 
and  I  have,  for  one,  no  belief  that  the  number  of  members 
in  either  House  who  would  vote  for  this  is  anything  but 
very  small  ;  and  not  in  any  present  way  of  becoming 
greater. 

But  there  are  two  ways  of  making  a  new  '  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer' — one,  the  alteration  of  the  present  Book  by 
Parliament :  this  I  have  dismissed  ;  the  other,  that  inter- 
pretation of  it — language,  text,  rubric — which  a  large  and 
primary  element  of  the  Church  of  England  cannot  possibly 
accept. 

Such  interpretation  has  taken  place  now  for  a  good  many 
years,  not  by  the  Spiritual  but  by  the  Temporal  authority, 
and  is  by  many  accepted  as  good  Church  law  and  sound 
interpretation. 


115 

Now  in  this  way  the  Prayer  Book  is  being  undermined  ; 
it  may  be,  almost  insensibly,  but  the  fact  remains  that  it  is 
being  undermined  ;  and  its  whole  authority  shaken  in  the 
mind  of  the  people ;  directly  with  some,  indirectly  with 
others.     This  is  the  third  distress. 

I  have  finished,  in  its  outline,  my  argument.  How  im- 
perfectly no  one  is  more  entirely  aware  than  myself.  I  have 
left  very  much  unsaid. 

I  have  no  fear  for  the  ultimate  issue  of  this  contention 
on  the  part  of  the  Church  of  England.  It  seems  as  if  it 
were  written  in  the  very  nature  of  things  divine  and  things 
human  that  the  time  for  this  must  come,  and  that  .speedily, 
when  the  Church  of  England  in  its  truth,  in  its  charity,  in 
its  shrinking  from  infliction  of  civil  penalties  for  conscience 
sake,  in  its  natural  comprehensiveness,  in  its  union  among 
its  members  for  the  saving  of  souls,  in  the  midst  of  differ- 
ences respecting  interpretation  of  the  Church's  law  and 
respecting  the  authority  ordained  to  expound  and  maintain 
that  law,  as  necessity  may  arise,  that  the  time  must  come 
when  things  will  be  better  with  us  than  they  are  now;  and, 
if  there  cannot  yet  be  '  unity,'  there  will,  nevertheless,  be 
peace ;  brother  with  brother,  parish  with  parish,  in  the 
charity  which  *  thinketh  no  evil,'  and  'hopeth  all  things.' 

Now  let  me  add  very  respectfully  one  more  consideration. 
There  is  yet  a  fourth  distress,  a  distress  prospective.  I 
will  hope  it  will  not  come  till  I  see  it  come.  The  Con- 
vocations will  pardon  me  if,  in  the  intenseness  of  my 
anxiety,  I  approach  it  now,  by  way  of  placing  myself  fully 
before  them  and  the  Church  outside  them. 

I  mean  the  distress  of  the  Convocations  of  England  de- 
clining to  move  with  prayer  to  the  Crown,  or  even  post- 
poning such  move,  in  the  present  distress.  That  is,  if 
I  must  speak  plain,  declining  to  pray  for  the  exercise  of 
their  divine  and  their  constitutional  inheritance  in  an 
emergency  the  most  comprehensive  and  the  greatest  of  all 
the  many  emergencies  that  have  arisen  since  their  doors 
were  re-opened  in  1852  ;  or  even  to  resolve  upon  post- 
ponement of  the  prayer. 

I  2 


ii6 

This  would  be,  in  the  only  aspect  in  which  I  can  allow 
myself  to  regard  the  position,  the  fourth,  and  culminating 
distress. 

For  myself,  I  believe  that,  if  the  Convocations  were  now 
to  unite  in  praying  to  be  allowed  to  apply  themselves  in 
a  National  Synod  for  the  consideration  of  the  present 
distress,  the  most  powerful  impulse  would  be  given  in  the 
direction  of  peace  ;  and  time  given  to  consider  well  that 
no  possible  good  can  accrue  to  individual  or  common  weal 
by  the  promoting  of  these  proceedings  at  law. 

Whether,  much  rather,  it  would  not  become  abundantly 
clear,  that,  though  it  be  quite  true  that  you  must  have 
Courts  of  law  for  the  correction  of  such  offences  against 
'  Church  and  State '  as  all  would  desire  to  sec  corrected, 
you  are  not  much  better  without  Courts  of  law  for  the 
visiting  with  civil  penalties  at  the  hands  of  the  Temporalty, 
interpretations  of  the  Prayer  I^ook  and  the  Articles  which 
one  man  affirms  and  rejoices  in,  and  another  does  not. 

I  appeal  for  an  answer  not  to  the  Convocations  only. 
I  appeal  to  the  common  sense  religious  of  the  English 
people.  No  number  of  the  present  'proceedings  at  law' 
will  avail  to  force  or  stifle  religious  conscience.  Their  only 
effect  is,  as  it  were,  to  confirm,  to  increase,  to  stereotype. 

If,  for  our  sins,  we  may  not  have  'the  Unity  of  the 
Faith,'  may  we  not,  at  least,  have  the  peace  that  comes  of 
charitable  consideration  and  patient  construing  of  motives 
one  with  another  ?  Or  is  it  to  be  for  ever  that  '  brother 
goes  to  law  with  brother  ?  ' 

I  repeat  that  I  believe  that  the  expression  by  the 
mouth  of  a  National  Synod  of  counsels  of  peace,  rather 
than  of  law,  would  have  a  moral  power  greater  far  than 
any  words  of  mine  could  hope  to  measure.  I  believe 
that,  apart  from  it,  there  is  no  other  manner  of  remedy 
which  carries  with  it  any  hope  of  healing  our  many 
wounds.  With  it,  and  with  the  kindly  and  most  valuable 
co-operation  of  our  brethren  of  the  Laity,  and  especially 
of  'the  House  of  Laymen,'  I  believe  that  peace  and 
rejoicing  are  in  store  for  us  all. 


117 

I  trust  I  may  not  offend  in  saying  that  to  take  up  what 
little  time  we  have  about  this  or  that  detail  of  Church 
life,  and  to  make  no  primary  and  steady  effort  towards 
recovering  '  her  discipline,'  is  very  like  buying  furniture 
for  a  house  when  the  house  is  on  fire.  Her  discipline? 
I  mean,  administrative  and  corrective,  in  matters  of 
Doctrine  and  Worship.  All  other  I,  for  one,  am  thankful 
to  see  reposed  in  the  hands  of  the  Civil  Power. 

It  is  not  possible  for  me  to  concur  in  any  proposal 
which  falls  short  of  restoring  to  the  Spiritualty  their 
exclusive  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  Doctrine  and  Worship. 

It  is  said  this  will  not  be  given.  Be  it  so.  Let  us  put 
into  its  place  the  call  to  Peace  by  the  voice  of  the 
National  Synod. 

I  therefore  humbly  submit  my  proposal  for  acceptance. 

If  it  be  not  accepted,  may  I  not  reasonably  ask  of  those 
who  do  not  accept,  what  '  constitutional '  substitute  they 
have  to  propose  ?  I  pray  attention  to  the  word  '  consti- 
tutional,' as  reserving  its  true,  historical,  and  lawful 
position  to  the  spiritual  element  in  '  Church  and  State  ; ' 
without  such  reservation,  every  attempt  to  remove  the 
burden  of  the  present  distress  must,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
and  the  necessities  of  the  case,  continuously  and  hopelessly 
fail. 

If  the  Convocations  of  the  Church  of  England  decline 
to  exercise  their  constitutional  inheritance  in  the  present 
distress,  so  nearly  touching  the  whole  position  of  the 
Church  of  England,  what  is  there  to  come  into  the  room 
of  the  Houses  of  Convocation  ? 

If  no  such  substitute  can  be  found — if  there  be  no 
proper  room  for  attempting  to  find  such  other  substitute 
— because  there  is,  in  the  nature  of  things.  Divine  or 
human,  no  other  such  substitute  ;  are  we  to  sit  still,  and 
see  the  Church  of  England  broken  into  pieces,  without  so 
much  as  raising  its  voice  and  hand  in  the  endeavour  to 
stay  the  blow  .'' 

On  the  one  hand,  then,  there  is  before  us 
the    attempt    often    made,   but    always    failing, 


ii8 

because  always  unsound,  to  frame  a  combined 
Court— Temporal  and  Spiritual  rather  than 
Spiritual  and  Temporal— of  final  appeal  in 
CAUSES  of  Doctrine  and  Worship. 

On  the  OTHER,  THE  ATTEMPT  TO  ATTAIN  TO 
PEACE  BY  ABSTAINING  FROM  INTERFERENCE  WITH 
RELIGIOUS  CONSCIENCE  BY  WAY  OF  'PROCEEDINGS  AT 
LAW.'  I  AM  PERSUADED  THAT  THE  LAST  IS  THE  'VIA 
PRIMA  SALUTIS;'  AND  I  PRAY  ALWAYS  THAT  THE 
TIME  MAY  COME  WHEN  IT  WILL  BE  AFFIRMED  SO  TO 
BE    BY    THE    VOICE   OF   THE   N.\TIONAL   SVNOD. 


PAPERS    REFERRED   TO    PAGE    io8. 


Analysis  of  Account  of  the  Spiritual  Eleinent  in  the  Judicial 
Committee  of  the  Privy  Council,  from  1832  to  April  1889, 
7mth  Preface,  containing  Note  Explanatory,  and  Extract 
from  Lord  Brougham^ s  Speech  on  Bishop  of  Londonh  Bill 
in  House  of  Lords,  1850.  Extracted  by  Brooks,  Jenkins, 
and  Co.,  Proctors,  Doctors'  Commons. 

PREFACE. 

The  Analysis  following  presents  forty-six  Cases. 

The  first  in  order  of  date  is  that  of  *  Speer  v.  Burder,'  described 
'Correction  of  Clerks,'  July  2,  1840. — No  Spiritual  Element. 

The  last  in  order  of  date  is  that  of '  Read  v.  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,'  described  *  Refusal  of  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
to  grant  Citation,'  August  3,  1888. 

The  remaining  forty-four  cases  are  classed  under  their  several 
heads  of  description. 

Note. 

In  1832  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Privy  Council  was 
substituted  for  the  Court  of  Delegates,  for  the  purposes  of 
Appeals  of  all  Ecclesiastical  Causes.  From  that  date  down  to 
that  of  the  Church  Discipline  Act,  1840,  there  was  no  Spiritual 
Element  in  the  Judicial  Committee.  From  the  Church  Dis- 
cipline Act  to  the  Appellate  Jurisdiction  Act,  1876,  it  was 
ordered  that  an  Archbishop  or  Bishop  should  be  a  member  of 
the  Judicial  Committee  in  Criminal  Cases.  There  were  none  in 
Civil  Cases.  But  in  the  Gorham  Case,  though  Civil,  the  Arch- 
bishops and  the  Bishop  of  London,  and  in  the  Cases  of '  Liddell 
V.  Westerton '  and  '  Liddell  v.  Beal,'  also  Civil,  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishop  of  London  were  asked  to  attend 
as  Assessors,  though  not  being  Members  of  the  Judicial  Com- 
mittee, for  the  purposes  of  those  Appeals.  Since  the  Appellate 
Jurisdiction  Act,  1876,  there  has  been  a  Rota  of  Archbishops 
and  Bishops  in  every  Ecclesiastical  Case  as  Assessors. 


120 


Extract  from  Lord  Brougham's  Speech  in  House  of 
Lords  on  Bishop  of  London's  Bill,  1850 ». 

Lord  Brougham  said : — *  It  was  my  Bill  that  constituted  the 
Judicial  Committee.  It  was  I  also  who  abolished  the  Court  of 
Delegates.  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  the  Judicial  Committee  of 
the  Privy  Council  was  framed  without  the  expectation  of  ques- 
tions like  that  [Gorham  Case]  which  had  produced  the  present 
measure  being  brought  before  it. — It  was  created  for  the  con- 
sideration of  a  totally  different  class  of  Case ;  and  I  have  no 
doubt  that  if  it  had  been  constituted  with  a  view  to  such  Cases 
as  the  present,  some  other  arrangement  would  have  been  made,' 
&c.,  &c.,  &c.  


ANAL  YSIS. 
DOCTRINE. 


Cases 

Spiritual  Element 

1858,  Feb.  6. 

Ditcher  v.  Denison. 

Bishop  of  London. 

1867,  ytme  18. 

Simpson  v.  Flamank. 

Archbishop  of  York. 

1861,  March  13. 

Heatli  V.  Burder  (ist  Appeal). 

No  Spiritual  Element. 

1862,  June  6. 

Heath  v.  Burder  (2nd  Appeal). 

Archbishop  of  York. 
Bishop  of  London. 

1870,  Nov.  14. 

Voysey  v.  Noble. 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 

HERESY. 


Cases 

Spiritual  Element 

1863,  jfime  26. 

(a)  Wilson  v.  Fendall.        \ 

\b)  Williams  v.  Bishop  of  j. 

Salisbury.                     J 

1876,  y«w.  31. 

Jenkins  v.  Cook, 

f  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
-!  Archbishop  of  York. 
t  Bishop  of  London. 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Archbishop  of  York. 

*  Hansard's  Parliamentary  Debates,  vol.  iii.,  June  3,   1850.     Appeals  to 
Privy  Council  from  Ecclesiastical  Courts  ;  Matters  of  Doctrine  Bill. 


121 


CORRECTION   OF   CLERKS. 


Cases 


1840,  July  2. 

Speer  v.  Burder. 

1842,  June  23. 

Escott  V.  Martin. 

1842,  Nov.  28. 

Head  v.  Saunders. 

1846,  May  13. 

Bluck  V.  Rackham ''. 

1848,  Feb.  14. 

Shore  v.  Barnes. 

1850,  May  9. 

Dodd  V.  Cooper  {abandoned). 

1850,  Dec.  31. 

Madan  v.  Karr  {abandoned). 

1856,  June  20. 

West  V.  Johnson. 


Spiritual  Element 


No  Spiritual  Element. 
No  Spiritual  Element. 
Bishop  of  Londcn. 
No  Spiritual  Element. 
Archbishop  of  York. 


No  Spiritual  Element. 


IMMORALITY. 


Cases 


1846,  Feb.  18. 

Loftus  V.  Kitson. 

1849,  Feb.  13. 

Craig  V.  Farnall. 

1867,  Feb.  7. 

Berney  v.  Bishop  of  Norwich. 

1868,  Feb.  12. 

Pearse  v.  Bishop  of  Norwich. 


Fitzroy  v.  Taylor  {abandoned). 

1869,  Feb.  18. 

Edwards  v.  Moss. 

1874,  April  28. 
Jackson  v.  Martin. 

1875,  May  2^. 
Reid  V.  Burch. 


Spiritual  Element 


No  Spiritual  Element. 
Bishop  of  London. 
Archbishop  of  York. 
Archbishop  of  York. 

Archbishop  of  York. 

Bishop  of  London. 
Archbishop  of  York. 


^  Tried  in  form  as  a  Civil  Suit. 


122 
RITUAL. 


Cases 


1868,  Nffv.  18. 

Martin  v.  Mackonochie. 

1869,  Jtme  19. 
Sheppard  v.  Phillimore. 

1870,  March  26. 

Sheppard  z/.  Bennett  ( 1st  Appeal). 

1871,  Nov.  29. 

Sheppard   v.  Bennett  (2nd   Ap- 
peal). 

1 870,  July  4. 
Elphinstone  v.  Purchas. 

1 87 1,  April  zd. 
Hebbert  v.  Purchas. 

1874,  May. 
Mackonochie  v.  Martin 

(abandoned). 

1875,  Nov.  24. 

Parnell  v.  Roughton. 

1882,  Feb.  3. 

Martin  v.  Mackonochie. 


1882,  July  4. 

Harris  v.  Perkins  and  Enraght. 


Spiritual  Element 


Archbishop  of  York. 


Archbishop  of  York. 
Bishop  of  London. 

Archbishop  of  York. 
Bishop  of  London. 

Archbishop  of  York. 
Bishop  of  London. 


Archbishop  of  York. 


Archbishop  of  York. 
Bishop  of  London. 


Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 


Archbishop  of  York. 
Bishop  of  Durham. 
Bishop  of  Winchester. 
Bishop  of  Lichfield. 

Bishop  of  London. 


CHURCH  ORNAMENTS. 


Cases 

Spiritual  Element 

iS^TfAfarc/i  21. 

Liddell  v.  Westerton,   \ 
Liddell  v.  Beal.             J 

/  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
\  Bishop  of  London. 

1874,  June  25. 

Lee  V.  Fagg  and  Mummery. 

No  Spiritual  Element. 

1877,  Feb.  I. 

Ridsdale  v.  Clifton. 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Bishop  of  Chichester. 
Bishop  of  St.  Asaph. 
Bishop  of  Ely. 
Bishop  of  St.  David's. 

123 


IRREGULAR   PERFORMANCE   OF   DIVINE   SERVICE. 


Cases 


1867,  Dec.  17. 

Rugg  V.  Kings  mill. 

1868,  l^ov.  17. 

Rugg  V.  Bishop  of  Winchester. 


Spiritual  Element 


No  Spiritual  Element. 
Archbishop  of  York. 


RETABLE. 


Cases 


1876,  March  21. 

Masters  v.  Durst  (ist  Hearing). 

1876,  May  29. 

Masters  v.  Durst  (2nd  Hearing, 
on  a  Special  Case  ordered  to 
be  brought  in). 


Spiritual  Element 


No  Spiritual    Element. 
No  Spiritual  Element. 


REREDOS. 


Case 

Spiritual  Element 

1875,  Jan.  22. 

Plailpotts  V.  Boyd. 

No  Spiritual  Element. 

DUPLEX   QUERELA. 


Cases 


1849,  Dec.  12. 

Gorham  v.  Bishop  of  Exeter. 


1875,  Feb.  19. 

Marriner  v.  Bishop  of  Bath  and 
Wells. 


Spiritual  Element 


Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Archbishop  of  York. 
Bishop  of  Lincoln. 

Bishop  of  Exeter. 
Bishop  of  Oxford. 
Bishop  of  Manchester. 


124 


REFUSAL  OF  ARCHBISHOP  OF   CANTERBURY   TO   GRANT 
CITATION. 


Case 

Spiritual  Element 

1888,  Au^usi  3. 

Read   v.   Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. 

Bishop  of  London. 
Bishop  of  Salisbury. 
Bishop  of  Ely. 
Bishop  of  Manchester. 
Bishop  of  Sodor  and  Man. 

Since  then  we  have  had 
1892,  Augiisi  2. 

Bishop  of  Chichester. 
Bishop  of  St.  David's. 

Same  Case. 

Bishop  of  Lichfield. 

(Archbishop  of  York). 

It  has  to  be  observed — 

1.  That  in  ten  out  of  the  forty-two  cases  in  analysis  there  is 
no  Spiritual  Element. 

2.  That  in  the  last  case,  '  Read  v.  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,' 
the  original  order  of  facts  was  : 

{a)  That  the  Prosecutor  having  applied  to  the  Archbishop  to 
cite  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  the  Archbishop  refused. 

{b)  That,  thereupon,  the  Prosecutor  api)lied  to  the  Judicial 
Committee  in  the  matter  of  the  Archbishop's  jurisdiction. 

{c)  That  the  Judicial  Committee  pronounced  that  the  Arch- 
bishop had  jurisdiction  in  the  case,  as  upon  a  point  referred  to 
and  resting  with  them  to  decide  aye  or  no. 

{d)  That  the  Judicial  Committee  did  not  say  'final  jurisdic- 
tion/ but  only  'jurisdiction.' 

{e)  That  after  this  delivery  on  the  part  of  the  Judicial 
Committee  the  Archbishop  proceeded  to  cite. 

George  Anthony  Denison, 

Archdeacon  of  Taunton. 


East  Brent  :  April,  1889. 


125 

NOTE   BY   AUTHOR. 

In  republishing  the  above  Analysis,  I  am  once  more  presenting 
the  position  which  dates  from  1832  down  to  the  present  time 
in  respect  of  Causes  Spiritual  before  Judicial  Committee  of 
Privy  Council.  The  case  of  Read  v.  Bishop  of  Lincoln  has 
been  added. 

It  has  to  be  noted  that  the  real  substance  of  the  complaint 

against  the  Civil  Power  in  respect  of  Spiritual  Causes  remains 

just  where  it  was  before  the  late  trial  in  the  Archbishop's  Court, 

and   the  final  review  of  the  Archbishop's  Judgment   by   Privy 

Council. 

I  am  bound  to  add  here  that  I  am  not  able  to  recognise  the 
Archbishop's  sole  Jurisdiction  as  exercised  in  that  Court. 

I  have  ceased  to  concern  myself  about  Ritual  upon  finding  it 
made  of  primary  concern,  and  Doctrine  of  secondary  concern. 

G.  A.  Denison. 


APPENDIX    II. 


THE    POLITICAL    HERESY    AND   THE    INTEL- 
LECTUAL   HERESY   OF   CENTURY   XIX. 
IN   ENGLAND. 


The  Charge  of  tJic  Archdeacon  of  Taunton ,  i8go. 

Brethren  in  Christ, 

I  speak  to  you  to-day  in  the  matter  of  two 
heresies — the  political  and  the  intellectual — prevailing  in 
England  very  widely,  from  the  early  part  of  this  century 
down  to  our  own  time,  and  gathering  strength  day  by  day. 
England  may  be  said,  with  the  exception  of  Socinus ",  to 
have  been  the  parent,  in  the  persons  of  Hobbes^  and 
Herbert  S  of  the  modern  heresy  of  Europe.  Heresy,  pass- 
ing through  France  into  Germany,  is  now  returned  upon 
us  in  large  requital  from  both,  and  especially  from  Ger- 
many. 

The  two  heresies — the  political  and  the  intellectual — 
have  particular  features  and  aspects  of  their  own.  But 
they  are  also  closely  allied  the  one  with  the  other,  inter- 
mixed and  intertwined  the  one  with  the  other. 

*  Heresy '  stands  forth  now,  has  ever  so  done,  and  will 
do  unto  the  end,  denying  and  contending  against  '  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church  '  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,  *  the  one 
Holy  Catholic  Church'  of  the  Nicene  Creed,  'the  Catholic 
Faith,'  '  the  Catholic  Religion '  of  the  Creed  of  S.  Atha- 
nasius. 

It  is  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  guided  by  *  The  Spirit 
of  Truth  <^,'  which  has  in  God's  own  time  given  to  all  men 

«  Socinus,  1525— 1562.  '•  Hobbes,  1588— 1679. 

••■  Herbert,  1561  — 1648.  ^  S.  John  xvi.  13. 


127 

for  all  time  '  Holy  Scripture,'  the  Bible,  the  Book  of  God, 
the  Word  of  God,  as  we  of  the  Church  of  England  have 
received  it. 

The  Political  Heresy.  When  therefore  I  subjoin  the 
word  '  heresy  '  to  '  political,'  I  mean  what  are  called  '  neces- 
sities of  party,'  coupled  with  corresponding  public  action 
on  the  part  of  the  legislature  for  the  time  being — action 
opposed  to  and,  in  one  measure  or  another,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  hostile  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  subordinat- 
ing its  Divine  commission,  duty  and  authority  to  temporal 
wants  and  uses. 

I  am  not  referring  here  to  any  party  in  particular,  but 
to  a  fact  common  to  parties  in  power  during  this  century, 
in  respect  of  what  I  have  here  in  hand.  What  one  has 
originated  its  successor  has  adopted. 

The  political  heresy,  then,  is  in  England  not  only  simply 
*  an  unconstitutional  thing'  in  virtue  of  the  constitution  of 
England  being  a  constitution  in  *  Church  and  State.'  It  is 
much  more  than  this  ;  it  is  an  '  irreligious  thing.'  I  speak 
of  the  thing  conceived  and  done  ;  not  of  the  man  conceiving 
and  doing.  I  have  no  authority  to  judge  the  doer;  but  if 
I  hesitated,  as  priest  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  to 
judge  and  warn  against  complicity  with  the  thing  done, 
I  should  be  unfaithful  to  my  office. 

Within  the  last  sixty  years  there  have  been  multiplied 
instances  in  England  of  the  action  and  rapid  development 
of  the  '  political  heresy ' — that  is,  the  heresy  which  con- 
cerns itself  with  ignoring,  damaging,  destroying  the  inherit- 
ance and  the  rights  of  English  citizens^;  inheritance  and 
rights,  religious  and  civil. 

Of  this  multiplied  number  I  cite  two  instances  only. 
I  cite  them  because  they  are  primary  in  point  of  time  and 
in  the  significance  and  extent  of  their  character  and  their 
issues.  There  is  in  both  a  very  copious  intermixture  of 
the  '  intellectual  heresy,'  with  which  I  shall  have  to  deal 
presently.     Meantime,  I  refer  to  my  two  instances. 

*  iroAiTTjs. 


128 

1.  To  the  annexation  in  1832-3  of  the  province  of  the 
Spiritualty,  being  the  constitutional  adviser  of  the  Crown 
in  all  causes  spiritual,  to  the  province  of  the  Judicial  Com- 
mittee of  Privy  Council  ;  with  all  the  subsequent  develop- 
ments and  unhappy  issues  of  this  annexation. 

2.  To  the  annexation  of  the  province  of  the  parish  school 
of  England,  the  nursery  of  the  parish  Church  of  England, 
to  the  province  of  the  Committee  of  Council  on  '  Educa- 
tion '  (so  called),  as  the  price  to  be  paid  for  assistance 
from  the  public  purse  ;  with  all  the  subsequent  develop- 
ments and  unhappy  issues  of  this  annexation.  This  was 
done  in  its  substance  in  1839 — 40.  The  thing  then  done 
had  been  hatching  from  1832  to  1839 — 40-  It  was  finally 
completed  in  1870.  The  issues  may  be  summed  up  thus  : 
{a)  The  essence  of  the  parish  school  has  been  destroyed  ; 
{b)  the  position  of  the  parish  priest  in  his  school  negatived  ; 
{c)  the  spirit  of  general  indifferentism  engendered  and 
encouraged.  Indifferentism  has  a  '  generation  ; '  that 
generation  is  infidelity. 

A  very  few  words  I  add  here  for  myself. 

I  have  never  denied  or  questioned  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  Civil  Power  of  England  to  assist  schools  of  citizens  not 
members  of  the  Church  of  England,  but  being  tax-payers 
alike  with  them  ;  what  I  have  denied,  and  do  deny,  is  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  Civil  Power  to  sacrifice  '  the  Church 
school '  to  any  extent,  or  in  any  particular,  in  order  to  the 
readier  promotion  of  secular  teaching  ;  of  what  goes  now 
by  the  name  of  '  the  education  of  the  young '  in  the  mouth 
of  those  forgetting  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  *  educa- 
tion '  in  a  Church  school  save  only  that  which  is  in  every 
particular  according  to  the  Prayer-book. 

I  take  leave,  now,  of  '  the  political  heresy,'  summing  it 
up  as  follows  : 

The  political  heresy  is  an  irreligious  principle,  carried 
out  in  action  by  dominant  citizenship  of  the  World  against 
the  Church. 

I  have  here  to  note  that  what  is  vulgarly  called  '  dis- 
establishment '  is  not  only  not  the  remedy  for  the  wrong 


129 

of  'the  political  heresy,'  but  is  a  sin  against  '  the  Unity  of 
the  Faith.'  Some  time  ago  I  was  hasty  enough  and  un- 
wise enough  not  to  see  this,  and  for  about  two  years  took 
part  in  the  'disestablishment'  cry.  I  thank  God  I  was 
brought  to  the  knowledge  of  my  unhappy  error. 

The  Intellecttial  Heresy.  When  I  subjoin  the  word 
'  heresy  '  to  '  intellectual '  I  mean  everything  that  casts 
a  shadow  of  doubt  upon  the  genuineness,  authenticity, 
Divine  authority  of  Holy  Scripture  as  given  to  us  by  the 
Catholic  Church,  guided  by  the  Spirit  of  Truth. 
One  example  is  sufficient. 

'  The  New  Criticism  '  does  not  accept  Moses  as  the  writer 
of  the  Law  :  Our  Lord  says, '  Did  not  Moses  give  you  the 
law?'     (S.  John  viii,  19.) 

'  Had  ye  believed  Moses,  ye  would  have  believed  Me, 
for  he  wrote  of  Me.  But  if  ye  believe  not  his  writings,  how 
shall  ye  believe  My  words  } '  (S.  John  v.  46,  7.) 

*  The  Law  was  given  by  Moses  :  but  grace  and  truth 
came  by  Jesus  Christ.'     (S.  John  i.  17.) 

The  condoners  of '  The  New  Criticism  '  apply  themselves 
to  getting  rid  of  all  this,  and  of  much  more  of  like  warning, 
by  the  assumption  of  the  alternative  following,  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  unavoidable  : 

Either  our  Blessed  Lord  did  not  know  the  historic  truth 
of  the  Scriptures  ;  or  knowing  it.  He  'veiled  His  omnis- 
cience '  according  to  '  the  general  method  of  the  Incarna- 
tion.' 

What  these  last  words  may  mean  I  cannot  tell.  To  say 
the  least,  the  vagueness  and  the  presumption  of  knowledge 
conveyed  in  them  are  about  equal.  If  they  have  no 
meaning  to  me,  I  may  perhaps  be  allowed  humbly  to  ask 
what  basis  they  supply  to  the  Christian  world  for  the 
introduction  of  a  new  Christianity  at  the  demand  of  '  The 
New  Criticism  ^ '  And  what  is  to  become  of  the  learned 
and  unlearned  to  whom,  or  for  whom,  the  Scriptures  are 
read  every  day  in  the  Church  as  out  of  God's  book :  and 
who,  out  of  the  Church,  and  perhaps  in  it,  are  told  that  the 
Scriptures  are  of  more  than  doubtful  authority  ? 

K 


I30 

The  seed  of  doubt  about  the  Divine  authority  of  '  the 
Scriptures'  now  proposed  to  be  sown  broadcast  in  the 
English  mind,  finds  its  ready  way,  among  other  eadiest 
impressions,  into  schools. 

There  arc  two  forms  of  the  intellectual  heresy,  the  major 
and  the  minor,  the  primary  and  the  subsidiary. 

The  first  is  the  conceiving,  and  the  acting  in  direct 
assault  upon  'The  Faith.'  The  instrument  employed  in 
action  is  'The  New  Criticism,'  which  assumes  that  the 
historic  truth  of  the  Revelation  of  God  has  yet  to  be 
ascertained  by  man. 

The  second  is  the  excusing,  jjalliating,  extenuating,  in 
one  word  condoning,  '  The  New  Criticism  ; '  and  even 
claiming  for  it  the  name  of  *  a  development  of  natural 
knowledge,'  and  the  name  of  a  '  search  after  Truth  ; '  the 
*  development '  and  the  '  search  after  Truth '  being  not 
reconcilable  with  Holy  Scripture  as  delivered  to  us  by  the 
Church,  under  the  guidance  of  '  The  Spirit  of  Truth,'  in 
fulfilment  of  the  prophesy  and  promise  of  our  Lord^ 

'  The  New  Criticism,'  applying  its  '  inventive  ^'  power  to 
the  overthrow  of  the  genuineness,  the  authenticity,  and 
therein  to  the  undermining  and  loosening  faith  in,  and 
even  respect  for,  '  Holy  Scripture,'  is  conceded  to  and  con- 
doned by  the  book  '  Lux  Mundi.' 

Now  if  any  man  want  to  see  and  know  what  is  the 
simple  history  of  the  birth  into  the  world  of '  the  intellec- 
tual heresy,'  he  has  it  given  him  once  for  all  in  the  first 
seven  verses  of  the  third  chapter  of  the  first  book  of 
Moses.     (Genesis  iii.  i — 7.) 

There  is  nothing  left  untold  there  of  the  history  of  its 
birth,  and  of  what  it  is  ;  nothing  for  man  to  invent,  or  to 
inquire  about  further  ;  nothing  which  he  may  invent  or 
inquire  about  further.  '  Natural  knowledge '  has  its  pro- 
vince. Outside  that  province  it  is  not  lawful  ;  becomes 
unnatural  ;  an  intruding  into  the  province  of  God.  The 
mind  of  man  in  the  pride  of  its  reason  craves  to  know 
what  is   beyond   the   range  of  the    reasoning  power.     It 

f  S.  John  xvi.  13.  ^  Eccles.  vii.  29. 


131 

craves,  but  cannot  be  satisfied  ;  any  more  than  could  the 
highest  order  of  the  fallen  Angels  be  satisfied. 

In  discourse  more  sweet 
(For  eloquence  the  soul,  song  charms  the  sense) 
Others  apart  sat  on  a  hill  retired, 
In  thoughts  more  elevate  ;  and  reasoned  high 
Of  Providence,  foreknowledge,  will,  and  fate  ; 
Fix'd  fate,  free  will,  foreknowledge  absolute ; 
And  found  no  end,  in  wandering  mazes  lost. 
Of  good  and  evil  much  they  argued  then, 
Of  happiness  and  final  misery, 
Passion  and  apathy,  and  glory,  and  shame  ; 
Vain  wisdom  all,  and  false  philosophy. 

Paradise  Lost ^  Book  II.  555—565  {c.  Eccles.  viii.  17). 

I  do  not  know  what  '  The  New  Criticism '  propounds 
upon  Genesis  iii.  i — 7.  I  do  not  care  to  know.  /  knotv 
beforehand  that  I  may  not  so  much  as  listen  to  it.  I  accept 
with  humble  thankfulness,  in  all  its  fulness  and  satisfying 
power,  the  Revelation  of  God  ;  not  the  inventions  of  men. 

The  desire  to  be  wiser  than  God  is  the  deadliest  of  the 
three  snares  of  the  devil  laid  for  every  soul  of  man. 

To  man  yet  innocent  the  devil  applied  this  his  deadliest 
weapon — the  desire  to  be  wise,  wiser  than  God.  He 
instilled  it  by  his  subtlety  into  the  heart  of  the  woman  : 

Yea,  hath  God  said  :  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  every  tree  of  the  garden. 
(Gen.  iii.  i.) 

Ye  shall  not  surely  die.  For  God  doth  know  that  in  the  day  ye 
eat  thereof,  then  your  eyes  shall  be  opened,  and  ye  shall  be  as  gods, 
knowing  good  and  evil.     (Gen.  iii.  4.) 

The  fall  was  begun,  the  way  opened  for  the  other  two 
temptations  of  man — '  the  lust  of  the  flesh  and  the  lust  of 
the  eye.' 

And  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good  for  food,  and 
that  it  was  pleasant  to  the  eyes,  and  a  tree  to  be  desired  to  make  one 
wise,  she  took  of  the  fruit  thereof  and  did  eat.     (Gen.  iii.  6.) 

Our  Blessed  Lord  '  was  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we 
are,  yet  without  sin'  (Hebrews  iv.  15);  S.  Luke  gives  us 
His  three  temptations  in  the  same  order  with  our  own 
(S.  Luke  iv.  i — 14)  ;  in  like  manner  S.  John,  calling  the 

K  2 


132 

desire  to  be  wiser  than  God  'the  pride  of  life'  (i  S.  John 
ii.  1 6,  17).  Man  is  proud  most  of  all  of  the  gift  of  the 
reasoning  power.  The  giving  way  to  this  temptation  our 
Lord  calls  '  tempting  God'''  (S.  Luke  iv.  12).  It  becomes 
in  one  form  or  another  the  intellectual  heresy,  finding  fault 
with  the  order  and  the  record  of  the  Revelation  of  God, 
and  therein  doing  all  that  can  be  done  to  undermine  and 
loosen  men's  faith  in  its  truth,  and,  therein,  in  its  Divine 
authority. 

Here  compare,  particularly  in  the  matter  of  Christ's 
Divine  Authority,  which  has  scaled  the  Scriptures  for  His 
Church  by  the  Spirit,  as  against  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
World  : 

Neither  let  us  tempt  Christ,  as  some  of  them  also  tempted,     (i  Cor. 
X.  9.) 

I  need  hardly  add — but  it  may  be  useful — that,  in  order 
to  the  full  understanding  of  what  is  meant  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture by  'tempting  God,'  'tempting  Christ,'  tempting  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord,  the  above  passage  has  to  be  most 
carefully  compared  with  Exod.  xvii.  2 — 7,  Deut  vi.  16, 
Isaiah  vii.  12,  Malachi  iii.  15,  S.  Matthew  xxii.  18,  Acts 
V.  9. 

I  have  already  published  a  brief  comment  upon  chief 
points  forced  upon  the  English  people  by  the  book  'Lux 
Mundi.'  The  comment  is  to  be  found  in  extenso  in  the 
Guardian  of  March  12,  1890,  p.  448.  I  reproduce  here, 
from  the  prefatory  note,  '  the  sum  of  my  position  : ' 

I.  That  our  Lord,  having  made  'Holy  Scripture'  His 
own,  has  '  anticipated  and  foreclosed  '  every  manner 
of    questioning    touching    the    'genuineness,'   the 

••  See  Milton's  Paradise  Regained,  Book  IV.  555—562  : — 
'  Cast  Thyself  down  ;  safely,  if  Son  of  God  i 
For  it  is  written,  He  will  give  command 
Concerning  Thee  to  His  Angels  ;  in  their  hands 
They  shall  uplift  Thee,  lest  at  any  time 
Thou  chance  to  dash  Thy  foot  against  a  stone. ' 
To  whom  thus  Jesus  :  '  Also  it  is  written, 
Tempt  not  the  Lord  thy  God.'     He  said,  and  stood. 
But  Satan,  smitten  with  amazement,  fell. 


133 

'  authenticity,'  and,  therein,  the  '  Divine  Authority, 
of  the  several  Books  of  '  Holy  Scripture.' 

2.  That,  therefore,  to  enter  upon  any  such  questioning- 

at  all  is  to  put  human  reasoning  into  the  place  of 
Revelation  ;  and  to  undermine  the  one  foundation 
of  Simplicity  of  Faith. 

3.  That  nothing  coming  short  of  smiple  and  absolute 

rejection  of '  The  New  Criticism '  can  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  the  case. 

I  reproduce  also  the  following  : 

For  the  personal  character  of  the  twelve  writers  in  the 
book,  let  me  say  that  it  commands  respect,  honour,  love. 

Also  that  there  is  in  the  book  much  very  beautiful,  very 
attractive,  very  powerful. 

But,  all  this  notwithstanding,  I  am  constrained  to  say 
that  it  is  an  extreme  unhappiness  that  the  book  should 
have  been  written,  prefaced,  edited,  published. 

It  adds  to  the  gravity  of  the  position  that  all  the  writers 
in  'Lux  Mundi'  have  made  themselves  responsible  in 
genere  for  the  contents  of  the  entire  volume.  (Preface, 
p.  6.) 

Now  the  object  and  purpose  of  the  entire  volume  is  set 
forth  in  the  second  sentence  of  the  Preface  to  be  an 
'  attempt  to  put  the  Catholic  Faith  into  its  right  relation 
to  modern  intellectual  and  moral  problems.' 

The  manner  of  conducting  this  attempt  resolves  itself 
into  the  condoning,  and  more  than  condoning,  the  issues 
of  man's  '  New  Criticism,'  in  virtue  of  one  or  other  of  the 
following  a.ssumptions  : 

Either  that  our  Lord  had  not,  in  the  days  of  His 
Ministry  upon  earth,  knowledge  of  the  Historic  Truth  of 
'the  Scriptures;'  or  that,  having  that  knowledge.  He 
'veiled  His  Eternal  Omniscience'  in  favour  of  the  '  natural 
knowledge '  of  successive  generations  of  men. 

Again,  I  am  forced  to  repeat  that  language  of  the  book 
is,  in  places,  applied  to  the  Divine  Nature,  which  is  natural 
as  applied  to  human  nature,  but  is  unnatural  and  painfully 
distressing  in  its  familiar  manner  of  use  as  applied  by  man 


134 

to  the  Divine  Nature.  The  promises  of  God  throui^hout 
His  Revelation  are  conditional  upon  such  obedience  as  He 
will  accept  for  Christ's  sake.  That  obedience  failing,  the 
promise  is  withdrawn,  and  this  is  declared  by  God  in  His 
own  lajigiiage.  But  for  man  to  speak  of  the  'disappoint- 
ment' of  God  is  plainly  to  use  language  which  cannot  be 
reconciled  with  His  Eternal  Omniscience. 

I  will  not  believe,  till  it  becomes  a  fact,  that  whatever 
may  be  the  differences  in  matters  spiritual  among  believers 
in  Christ  in  England,  there  will  not  be  found  a  great  mul- 
titude of  all  orders  and  conditions  of  men  uniting  in 
absolute  rejection  of  the  new  Christianity  imported  into 
England  by  *  The  New  Criticism  ; '  condoned,  and  more 
than  condoned,  by  the  book  '  Lux  Mundi.'  It  is  close 
upon  two  thousand  years  since  Christ  came  ;  and  we  are 
asked  by  the  pride  of  human  learning  to  deal  with  the 
Book  of  God,  and  teach  our  people  so,  as  if  it  was  a  book 
of  man. 

God  grant  to  us,  dear  brethren  in  Christ,  in  the  trial 
which  is  upon  us,  to  learn  to  be  thankful  that,  in  an  age 
which  is  very  loose,  and  filled  to  the  brim  with  the  conceit 
of  human  learning,  knowledge,  power,  along  with  forget- 
fulness  of  The  Giver,  He  hath  sent  us  something  to  make 
us  more  careful  to  try  ourselves,  and  to  say  to  ourselves, 
*  Do  ye  now  believe  } '  (S.  John  xvi.  31.)  To  try  ourselves 
as  to  what  that  is  which  we  call  our  '  faith.' 

'  The  New  Critic '  and  his  condoners  drag  down  heaven 
to  earth — heavenly  things  to  earthly  things.  They  are 
hearing  men  rather  than  God. 

Hear  we  then  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  speak- 
ing to  us  in  the  days  of  His  Incarnation — speaking  to  us 
of  His  own  method  of  His  own  Incarnation  : 

Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  We  speak  that  we  do  know,  and 
testify  that  we  have  seen  ;  and  ye  receive  not  our  witness.  If  I  have 
told  you  earthly  things,  and  ye  believe  not,  how  shall  ye  believe, 
if  I  tell  you  of  heavenly  things }  And  no  man  hath  ascended  up 
to  heaven,  but  He  that  came  down  from  heaven,  even  the  Son  of 
man  which  is  in  heaven.     (S.  John  iii.  11  — 13.) 


03 


I  sum  up  in  brief — 

The  question  raised  by  Mr.  Gore  in  his  Preface  to  the 
book  '  Lux  Mundi,'  and  developed  in  his  own  Essay,  is 
not  a  question  of  the  like  nature  with  those  of  'Rite 
and  Ceremony'  and  of  Church  Government,  in  both  of 
which  the  contending  parties  appeal  to  '  the  Law  of  the 
Church '  as  by  each  interpreted— 

But  is  a  question  primary  and  precedent  of  all  other ; 
a  question  lying  at  the  fountain  head  of  The  Faith  ;  a 
question  of  the  Divine  Authority  of  the  common  inherit- 
ance of  '  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  ; '  a  question 
in  its  nature,  not  admitting  of  diverse  interpretation; 
a  question  of  the  Divine  Authority  of  the  Canonical 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  delivered  to  man 
for  all  time  by  the  Church  Catholic,  guided  by  The  Spirit 
into  all  Truth  ;  Authority  precluding  and  foreclosing 
human  enquiry  into  the  genuineness  and  authenticity 
of  the  several  Books  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  so  de- 
livered ;  or  of  portions  of  those  Books. 

I  cite  some  words  of  our  Blessed  Lord  : 

Search  the  Scriptures  ;  for  in  them  ye  think  ye  have  eternal  life  : 
and  they  are  they  which  testify  of  Me.     (S.  John  v.  39.) 


APPENDIX    III. 


LUX    MUNDI. 


A  Paper  read  at  a  Meeting  of  the  English  C/utrch  Union, 
February  2j,  iSqo. 

Dear  Friends  in  CHRIST,— 

I  thank  GOD  that  I  am  able  to  be  again  present  here 
with  you  to-night. 

I  have  a  special  duty  to  discharge  towards  you,  and 
through  you,  to  others. 

A  book  has  been  published  called  "  Lux  Mundi " — 
"  The  Light  of  the  World." 

The  book  in  itself,  with  special  circumstances  closely 
connected  with  its  publication,  are  the  warrant  for  freest 
comment  upon  it,  and  its  issues. 

What  I  have  to  say  upon  it  to-night  must  needs  be 
condensed  to  the  utmost  possible  extent — I  am  going  to 
state  truths,  not  to  argue.  There  is  indeed  no  room  for 
arguing  in  the  case. 

If,  upon  this,  any  one  say  that,  when  arguing  is  shut 
out,  the  position  of  the  man  who  shuts  it  out  is  a  weak 
one,  my  answer  is  this — 

That  for  the  Christian  man,  in  respect  of  the  Authority 
of  "  Holy  Scripture,"  there  is  a  weakness  which  is  stronger 
than  the  deepest  enquiry,  the  keenest  reasoning  power,  the 
most  attractive  and  winning  eloquence ;  and  that  is  child- 
like simplicity  of  Faith. 

"  Except  ye  be  converted  and  become  as  little  chil- 
"dren,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  Heaven '\" 

"  When  I  am  weak,  then  am  I  strong ''." 

•  S.  Matt,  xviii.  3.  ^2  Cor.  xii.  10. 


137 

A  simple  childlike  Faith,  a  sense  of  inherent  weakness 
apart  from  Christ,  is,  for  the  Christian,  the  one  way  of 
Life.  The  one  way  for  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor, 
learned  and  unlearned,  one  with  another. 

Simple  childlike  Faith  in  "  Holy  Scripture "  as  de- 
livered to  him  by  the  Church  ^. 

Suffer  me  to  recall  to  you  the  words  of  jESUS  in  the 
Gospel  for  S.  Matthias  Day. 

'^"At  that  time  jESUS  answered  and  said,  I  thank 
"  Thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  because 
"  Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent  ^, 
"  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes.  Even  so  Father, 
"  for  so  it  seemed  good  in  Thy  sight." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Adversary  of  the  Church,  the 
World,  led  by  its  Prince,  proclaims  "Science"  or  "Phi- 
losophy" to  be  its  chief  and  safest  guide.  From  the 
earliest  times  of  Christianity,  the  World  has  been  doing 
this.  In  our  own  portion  of  "  the  last  days^"  the  World 
is  asking  us  to  admire  and  adopt  a  "  Science,"  or  "  Phi- 
losophy," which  has  for  its  object  the  promotion  of  dis- 
Belief  in  The  Divine  Authority  of  the  Old  Testament. 

This  "  Science  "  or  "  Philosophy "  is  "  the  New  Criti- 
cism." There  are  only  two  places  in  Holy  Scripture 
in  which  the  words  "Philosophy,"  "Science"  are  found. 

"  Beware  lest  any  man  spoil  you  through  philosophy 
"and  vain  deceit;  after  the  tradition  of  men,  after  the 
"  rudiments  of  the  World,  and  not  after  Christ  s." 

"  O  Timothy,  keep  that  which  is  committed  to  thy 
"  trust,  avoiding  profane  and  vain  babblings  and  opposi- 
"  tions  of  '  Science '  falsely  so  called ;  which  some, 
"professing,  have  erred  concerning  The  Faith ^" 

For  the  personal  character  of  the  twelve  writers  in 
the  book,  let  me  say  that  it  commands  respect,  honour, 
love. 

"  Article  VI.  ^  S.  Matt.  xi.  25.  "  ffwerwi'.  "  Under- 

standing "  R.  V.  '2  S.  Peter  ii.  3  ;  I  Heb.  i.  2  ;  Acts  ii.  171 

8  Coloss.  ii.  8.  ''  I  Timothy  vi.  20,  21. 


138 

Also  that  there  is  in  the  book  much  very  beautiful, 
very  attractive,  very  powerful. 

But,  all  this  notwithstanding,  I  am  constrained  to  say 
that  it  is  an  extreme  unhappiness  that  the  book  should 
have  been  written,  prefaced,  edited,  published. 

The  object  and  drift  of  the  book  is  stated  in  the  second 
paragraph  of  the  Preface,  as  follows  : 

•*  The  writers  are  compelled  for  their  own  sake,  no 
"  less  than  for  that  of  others,  to  attempt  to  put  The 
"  Catholic  Faith  into  its  right  relation  to  modern  intellec- 
"tual  and  moral  problems." 

Upon  this,  I  have  first  to  say,  that  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  find  anywhere  a  more  startling  and  confounding 
attempt  announced  by  sons  of  The  Church  Catholic  than 
this  public  announcement  at  the  close  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century  of  Redemption. 

Further  still,  that  it  lays  the  foundation  of  never-ending 
aggression  upon  Simplicity  of  Faith  by  way  of  succes- 
sive adaptations  of  "  Holy  Scripture "  to  the  successive 
"modern  intellectual  and  moral  problems"  of  successive 
times  :  that  is  to  the  successive  "inventions'"  of  men. 

Now  I  submit  that  it  is  not  the  duty  of  sons  of  The 
Church  Catholic  to  be,  at  any  time,  under  any  circum- 
stances, shifting  the  line  of  Defence  of  the  Faith  com- 
mitted and  entrusted  to  them  of  GOD  by  The  Church. 

More  particularly,  that  it  is  not  their  duty  to  minister 
to,  in  the  hope  of  reconciling,  those  who  are,  in  their 
appetite  for  profane  and  reckless  criticism,  applying  their 
little  life  to  instilling  into  the  minds  of  Christ's  People 
doubts  and  difficulties  about  the  genuineness  and  the 
authenticity,  and  therein  about  the  authority,  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  of  The  Old  Testament. 

Further  still  that  it  rs  not  their  duty  as  sons  of  The 

Church  to  do  this  at  the  cost  of  the  simple  and  humble 

believer ;  of  the  man  who  does  not  live  his  little  life  to 

criticise,  argue,  question,  doubt   about   the  foundation  of 

'  Eccles.  vii.  29. 


139 

his  Faith ;  but  to  obey  because  he  beHeves  ;  with  the 
words  always  in  his  heart.  "If  thou  canst  beheve,  all 
"things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth— Lord,  I 
"  believe  ;  help  Thou  mine  '  unbelief  V 

Of  all  cruel  things  that  one  man  can  do  to  another 
there  is  nothing  so  cruel  as  to  go  about  to  shake  the 
foundations  of  Belief;  and  therein  to  rob  the  thousands 
and  ten  thousands  of  men  of  their  one  ground  of  Comfort 
and  of  Hope. 

In  whatever  way,  and  however  guarded  or  modified, 
this  be  done,  it  carries  with  it  the  largest,  the  worst,  and 
the  most  unhappy  issues. 

It  is,  if  not  consciously  but,  surely,  to  help  to  poison 
the  fountain-head  in  order  to  make  the  waters  healing. 
To  muddy  the  spring  that  the  stream  may  be  clear  and 
bright.  To  help  the  doubter  and  disputer  to  the  loss  and 
harm  of  the  simple  believer. 

Above  all  it  is  to  rush  in  to  tread  where  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  has  barred  the  way,  and  has  shut  the  gate. 
He  has  made  all  Holy  Scripture  His  own. 

There  is  another  feature  of  the  book  which  I  may 
not  pass  by.  I  mean  the  use  in  many  places  of  language 
natural  and  familiar  as  applied  by  man  to  man  ;  unnatural 
and  distressing  as  applied  by  man  to  GOD. 

There  is  yet  another  feature,  the  unhappiest  of  all,  if 
there  be  room  to  distinguish. 

The  neologian,  being  in  difficulty  about  our  Lord's 
express  testimony  to  the  historical  Truth  of  "  The  Scrip- 
tures," assumes,  in  accordance  with  the  general  character 
of  neologic  criticism  i,  that  our  Lord  did  not  possess  in  His 
life  upon  Earth  that  accurate  knowledge  of  historical  fact, 
which  he,  the  neologian,  has  been  able  to  possess  in  virtue 
of  his  own  critical  research. 

''  S.  Mark  ix.  23,  24. 

'  The  new  criticism  in  itself,  condoned  as  it  is  in  "  Lux  Mundi,"  is  of 
a  character  not  tolerable,  as  applied  to  a  book  of  man.  It  is  worse  than 
intolerable  as  applied  to  The  Book  of  God. 


140 

How  does  Mr.  Gore,  the  writer  of  Essay  VIII.,  the 
Editor  of  the  book,  deal  with  this  ? 

He  deals  with  it  not  by  way  of  condemnation,  or  refu- 
tation, or  even  reproof.  He  concedes  the  substance  of  it  ; 
and  he  supports  the  concession  upon  the  following  nega- 
tive process : 

"  He  shews  no  signs  at  all  of  transcending  the  Science 
"of  His  age.  Equally  he  shews  no  signs  of  transcending 
"  the  History  of  His  age.  He  does  not  reveal  His  Eternity 
"by  statements  as  to  what  had  happened  in  the  past,  or 
"was  to  happen  in  the  future  outside  the  ken  of  existing 
•'  history. 

"  Thus  the  utterances  of  CHRIST  about  the  Old  Testa- 
"  ment  do  not  seem  to  be  nearly  definite  or  clear  enough 
"to  allow  of  our  supposing  that  in  this  case  He  is  de- 
"  parting  from  the  general  method  of  the  Incarnation,  by 
"brino-ing  to  bear  the  unveiled  omniscience  of  the 
"Godhead  to  anticipate  or  foreclose  a  developement  of 
"  natural  knowledge  ■"." 

That  is  to  say,  that  because  our  LORD  did  not  state 
formally  that  He  had  all  historic  knowledge,  it  is  to  be 
assumed  that  He  had  it  not.  His  express  declarations 
about  Moses'  "writings"  and  "the  Scriptures"  notwith- 
standing. And  that  real  knowledge  of  what  is,  and  what 
is  not,  historic  Truth  of  "Holy  Scripture"  has  been  left 
to  be  supplied  in  after  ages  by  successive  developements 
of  "  natural  knowledge."  That  is,  by  what  "  Holy  Scrip- 
ture" has  "anticipated  and  foreclosed"  under  the  name 
of  "  inventions  of  men  °." 

"  Do  not  think  I  will  accuse  you  to  The  Father. 
"  There  is  one  that  accuseth  you,  even  Moses,  in  whom 
"  ye  trust.  For  had  ye  believed  Moses,  ye  would  have 
"  believed  Me,  for  he  u^rote  of  Me.  But  if  ye  believe  not 
"  his  writings,  how  shall  ye  believe  My  words  °  ?  " 

"  Search  the  Scriptures,  for  in  them  ye  think  ye  have 
"  eternal  Life  ;  and  they  are  they  which  testify  of  Me  p." 

"  Essay  VHI.,  p.  360.  °  Eccles.  vii.  29.  "  S.  John  v.  44-5-6. 

p  Pss.  cvi.  29,  39  ;  xcix.  8  ;  St.  John  v.  39. 


141 

I  sum  up  this  Paper  as  follows  : 

That  the  book  "  Lux  Mundi "  is  much  more  a  con- 
cession to  and  an  excuse  for  "  the  New  Criticism "  than 
a  reproof  and  warning  against  it. 

That  therefore  I  call  it  a  most  unhappy  and  dangerous 
book. 

And  I  have  this  further  to  say :  That,  filled  as  the  last 

58    years    of    this    century    have    been    with    successive 

assaults  upon    The    Catholic   Faith  and    Position  of  the 

Church  of  England,  the  book  called  "  Lux  Mundi  "  coining 

from  witJiin  is  my  chief  ground  for  fear. 

I  make  no  apology,  dear  friends  in  CHRIST,  for  this 
Address.  To  have  passed  by  the  book  unnoticed  in  the 
exercise  of  my  office  among  you  as  Chairman  of  this 
Branch  of  the  English  Church  Union  would  have  been 
to  betray  that  office  in  failing  to  warn  you  lest  ye  be 
"  corrupted  from  the  Simplicity  that  is  in  Christ''." 

I  allow  myself  to  hope  that,  by  grace  of  God,  the  Union 
of  Clergy  and  People  against  everything  that  touches  the 
authority  of  The  Bible  will  be  very  general  and  very 
powerful. 

■i  2  Cor.  xi.  3. 


A    SPEECH    BEFORE    CONVOCATION, 

Februaiy  j,    iSgi. 


The  Gravamen  of  the  undersigned,  George  Anthony  Dcnison, 
Archdeacon  of  Taunton. 

Session  of  Convocation  of  Canterbury,  February  3,  1S91. 

1.  Whereas,  on  Tuesday,  Session  May  6th,  1890,  the  under- 

signed presented  a  gravamen  tJi  re  '  Lux  Mundi ' 
(London  :  John  Murray,  Albemarle  Street,  1889),  and 
gave  notice  of  motion  that  it  be  made  '  Articulus 
Cleri '  for  Session  next  ensuing,  Wednesday,  7th  ; 

2.  And  whereas  the  evening  of  May  6th  the  undersigned 

was  told  by  high  authority  that  there  was  a  prospect 
of  '  explanation  '  being  given  upon  the  Preface  and 
other  portions  of  the  book,  and  was  much  pressed  by 
many  for  whom  he  has  highest  consideration  to  wait 
for  such  explanation  before  moving  further  in  the 
matter ; 

3.  And  whereas  the  undersigned  consented  to  this  course ; 

but  was  careful  to  guard  himself  by  saying  that  he 
was  unable  to  understand  now  any  sufficient  '  explana- 
tion '  could  be  given  in  the  case  short  of  withdrawal 
of  the  matter  published  and  complained  of; 

4.  And  whereas  the  undersigned  was  disabled  by  illness 

from  appearing  in  his  place  in  Convocation  on  Wed- 
nesday, Session  May  7th  ;  and  wrote  the  letter  to  the 
Prolocutor  which  is  placed  upon  record  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Lower  House,  Session  May  7th,  1890 ; 

5.  And  whereas  the  undersigned  has  received  the  '  expla- 

nation '  supplied  by  the  Editor  of,  and  contributor  to, 
the  book  in  his  Preface  to  Edition  X.  ;  and  that  also 
in  his  letter  to  '  Guardian,'  October  i8th,  pubHshed  in 
'  Guardian  '  of  October  22nd,  1890  ; 

6.  And  whereas  the  undersigned  finds  nothing  in  either  of 

these  two  papers,  or  in  any  other,  to  remove  or  lessen 


143 

the    ground    of    his    complaint  :    but   rather  to    add 
thereto  ; 
7.   And  whereas    the   undersigned   desires   to   place    that 
complaint  as  concisely  as  possible  before  the  House 
and  the  Church  ; 

He  proceeds  to  state  as  follows  : 

1.  That  in  the  book  '  Lux  Mundi,'  our  Blessed  Lord's 

'  positive  teaching,'  in  respect  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scriptures,  is  limited  to  those  instances  in 
which  our  Blessed  Lord  has  Himself  prefaced,  or 
accompanied,  His  'teaching'  by  His  own  affir- 
mation of  its  '  positive  '  character. 

2.  That,  in  every  other  instance,  the  book  assumes  it 

to  be  the  right,  power,  and  proper  function  of  the 
'  literary  critic  '  of  this,  and  every  successive, 
generation  to  discern,  in  the  above-named  respect, 
between  the  *  positive  '  and  '  non-positive  '  char- 
acter of  our  Blessed  Lord's  '  teaching.' 

3.  That  such  limitation  and  assumption  — 

A.  Cannot  be  reconciled  with  the  Holy  Gospels. 

B.  Tend  to  'beguile'  and  'corrupt'  men's  minds 

'from  the  simplicity  that  is  in  ClIRIST*.' 

C.  Are  irreverent  towards  Him,  perfect  GOD  and 

perfect  Man. 

D.  Are  contrary  to  the  authority  of  the  Church, 

as  declared  by  the  Vlth  Article  of  Religion. 

E.  Are  contrary  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 

and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments. 
Reformandmn. — The    undersigned    respectfully  prays   his 
Grace  the  President  and  their  Lordships  the  Bishops 
to  take  such  steps  as  may  be  necessary  to  protect  the 
Church  from  dangerous  error. 

GEORGE   ANTHONY   DENISON, 

A  rchdeacon  of  Taunton. 

Carried  up  to  the  Upper  House  by  the  Prolocutor  of  the 
Lower  House. 

■  2  Cor.  xi.  3. 


A  SPEECH  BEFORE  THE  LOWER 
HOUSE  OF  CONVOCATION, 

Scssio7i  February  j,  iSgi. 


It  is  not  easy  to  measure  the  distress  under  which  I  come 
before  the  House.  Those  of  you  who  know  me  well,  now 
not  many,  will  give  me  credit  for  it.  From  those  who  do 
not  I  ask  the  most  favourable  construction  they  can  put 
upon  my  action. 

I  desire  here,  in  limine,  to  remove  a  possible  misappre- 
hension of  the  object  I  have  in  asking  the  House  to  concur 
in  praying  for  a  committee  to  enquire  into  and  report.  I 
look  at  the  man  who  is  primarily  and  principally  concerned 
with  the  position  taken,  and  claim  advanced,  in  a  great 
centre  of  English  learning.  I  look  at  those  associated  with 
him  and  stated  by  him  to  be  ingenere  concurrent  with  him 
upon  the  main  issue.  I  find  them,  as  I  find  himself,  to 
be  respected,  honoured,  loved — all  of  them  men  of  large 
ability,  learning,  kindliness  in  purpose  and  in  act,  and  of 
recognised  and  unquestioned  Churchmanship,  save  in  the 
present  instance.  On  the  other  hand,  I  find  them  advocat- 
ing conclusions  which  it  is  not  possible  for  me  to  stand  by 
and  not  to  disallow.  I  find  them  advocating  in  substance 
a  revised  faith  and  a  new  theology  at  the  close  of  the 
nineteenth  century  of  redemption-'';  advocating  these  things 
by  way  of  '  succour  to  a  distressed  faith '  in  themselves 
and  others,  because  such  faith  is  unable  to  reconcile  con- 
clusions of  science  with  Holy  Scripture,  and  is  making  its 
choice  between  Holy  Scripture  in  its  integrity  and  the 
conclusions  of  science,  in  favour  of  the  latter.  For  myself 
and  for  others  '  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,'  who  are 
either  without  time  or  without  care,  or  without  the  means 
of  taking  part  in  duly  considering  this  great  question  ;  for 
all  who  cling  advisedly  to  Holy  Scripture  as  committed  to 
us  by  the  Church  of  England  ;    and  lastly,  for  the  millions 

»  See  Preface  to  "  LuxMundi,"  Ed.  i,  1889,  p.  viii. 


145 

of  mankind,  who  live  and  must  die  unlearned,  and  have 
nothing  to  look  to  but  the  simplicity  of  faith  in  which 
to  live  and  die,  what  I  am  asking  the  House  to  concur  in 
is  this  and  this  only. 

First,  negatively,  in  no  word  of  condemnation.  It  is 
far  away  from  myself,  either  in  thought,  word,  or  act.  It 
would  be  quite  unfitting  in  the  case.  Second,  affirmatively, 
that  it  concur  in  saying  that  it  is  right  there  should  be 
inquiry  by  a  committee  in  the  hope  that  the  committee 
will  advise  the  House  that  the  Church  of  England,  in  this 
Province,  may  not  accept  the  conclusions  of  '  Lux  Mundi,' 
inasmuch  as  such  conclusions  involve,  to  use  its  own 
language,  a  revised  faith '^  and  a  new  theology;  this  as 
against  'the  old  ways  and  the  old  paths.'  I  have  en- 
deavoured here  to  present  the  gentler  and  more  hopeful 
aspect  of  the  case— that  is  to  say,  of  the  necessary  and 
abiding  conflict  between  the  old  faith  and  the  new,  the 
old  theology  and  the  new.  It  would  only  be  idle  to 
attempt  to  hide  from  myself  and  others  that  there  is 
another  aspect  which  I  will  not  anticipate,  which  the 
Church  of  England  may  have  to  look  steadily  in  the  face 
throughout  all  time. 

Meantime,  I  have,  to  the  best  of  my  poor  ability,  to  do 
what  is  my  plain  duty,  irrespective  of  consequences  that 
may  or  may  not  ensue,  and  to  ask  the  House  kindly  to  bear 
with  me  while  I  endeavour,  as  briefly  as  I  can,  to  place 
the  present  case  before  them. 

From  the  first  day  that  I  took  the  book  '  Lux  Mundi ' 
into  my  hands,  now  more  than  a  year  ago,  I  have  never 
been  without  the  keenest  sense  of  the  special  danger  of  it 
to  '  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  ' — to  the  few  that  are 
'  learned,'  to  the  millions  that  are  not  *  learned,'  and  must 
perforce  continue  all  their  lives  in  that  position.  Even  to 
those  who  may  think  themselves  little  likely  to  let  its 
assumptions  and  its  reasoning — assumptions  startling  from 
more  causes  than  one,  reasoning  curiously  vague,  specu- 

*>  Preface  to  First  and  Tenth  Editions. 
L 


146 

lativc  and  undefined  — have  any  weight  with  them,  portions 
of  the  book — the  Preface  and  Eic^hth  Essay  more  particu- 
larly— in  one  respect,  the  whole  book  collectively — however 
in  many  parts  beautiful  and  commended  by  the  high 
character  of  its  writers — appear  to  me,  all  the  explanations 
that  have  been  given  upon  them,  by  rewriting,  notes  and 
Preface  in  editions  subsequent,  and  a  great  amount  of  other 
explanation  from  critics,  more  or  less  concurring  notwith- 
standing, to  exhibit  unmistakably,  as  much  as  ever — I  will 
not  say  more  than  ever — its  special  danger.  The  latest 
of  these  'explanations'  from  the  hands  of  Mr.  Gore,  that 
I  have  knowledge  of,  is  his  letter  to  the  '  Guardian,'  dated 
October  18,  1890,  published  October  22.  I  reproduce  it 
below,  with  my  comments  upon  it. 

This  danger  to  'all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men'  is 
thus  to  my  heart  and  mind  so  great  that  I  have  been 
constrained  to  renew  my  complaint  before  this  House,  and 
to  take  further  necessary  steps,  issuing  in  prayer  to  his 
Grace  the  President  of  this  Synod,  to  direct  appointment 
of  committee  to  consider  and  report  upon  it.  I  bring  my 
complaint  before  both  Houses  by  gravamen — before  this 
House  by  motion. 

There  have  been  times  in  the  history  of  the  Church, 
and  maybe  again — though,  indeed,  the  present  temper  and 
bias  of  men's  minds  does  not  appear  to  promise  it — when 
the  leading  character  of  the  book,  '  Lux  Mundi,'  w^hich  I 
am  about  to  state,  would  have  been  dismissed  in  humble 
confidence  that  it  would  fail  entirely  to  command  such 
attention  and  concurrence  as  to  require,  so  to  speak,  the 
intervention  of  the  Church's  authority — I  mean  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Synod  of  the  Province  in  which  the  publication 
has  been  made.  I  do  not  go  here  into  the  true,  lawful, 
legal,  and  constitutional  authority  of  the  Synod,  however 
set  at  naught  by  assumption  and  invasion  of  the  Civil 
Power.     There  is  no  room  or  necessity  for  this  now. 

But  I  need  hardly  say  that  our  time  is  not  such  a  time 
as  that  just  referred  to.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  time 
which,  from  great  abundance  of  causes — which  I  do  not 


147 

stop  to  enumerate,  and  which  accumulate  day  by  day — - 
supplies  special  grounds  for  increased  watchfulness  on  the 
part  of  the  Synods  of  the  Church  in  guarding  and  main- 
taining unimpaired  the  precious  deposit  committed  to  their 
care. 

Is  it  said  there  is  the  public,  though  not  corporate, 
criticism  of  numbers  of  individual  men  competent  to 
criticise,  which  may  be  looked  to  to  correct  false  conclusions 
upon  matters  of  the  deepest  interest,  such  as  are  all 
questions  of  the  faith  in  the  revealed  Will  of  God  ? — my 
answer  is  that  any  amount  of  such  criticism  can  never 
come  into  the  place  of  the  decision  of  the  Synod  of  the 
Church  when  such  false  conclusions  threaten  to  prevail. 
The  Church  has  to  speak  by  her  corporate  voice  ;  that 
corporate  voice  is  with  us  in  England  the  voice  of  the 
Synod  Provincial,  or  let  us  hope  there  are  those  now  in 
this  House  who  will  live  to  see  if  the  voice  of  the  Synod 
National — the  Synod  of  the  Bishops  and  Priests  of  all 
England.  Criticism  has  its  own  proper  uses,  religious  and 
civil  ;  but  religious  criticism  can  no  more  make  law  for 
the  Church  than  civil  criticism  can  make  law  for  the  State. 
Again,  let  me  not  be  understood  as  disparaging  the  mar- 
vellous accumulations  of  man's  knowledge  ;  for  every  one 
of  these  is  God's  gift.  But  there  is  the  province  of  the 
Giver  and  the  province  of  the  receiver,  and  the  boundary 
line  between  them  may  not  be  broken.  Having  premised 
these  things,  I  proceed  to  state  that  there  are  four  principal 
heads  of  the  matter  in  hand  which  have  to  be  placed  before 
this  House,  and  the  Church  at  large. 

I.  The  claim  of  '  Lux  Mundi,'  as  stated  in  its  Preface 
and  the  VHIth  Essay,  and  endorsed,  in  its  general  aspect, 
by  the  other  writers  in  the  book.  I  pass  by  as  too  painful 
for  me  to  dwell  upon  expressions  following  :  '  limitation 
of  knowledge  in  our  Lord's  human  mind,'  '  statements 
upon  subjects  about  which  He  was  really  ignorant,'  *  state- 
ments which  are  now  known  to  have  been  false.'  All 
these  expressions  are  of  the  essence  of  most  irreverent 
assumption  in  the  form  of  care  for  reverence. 

L  2 


148 

Further  still,  the  suggestincj  that  our  Lord  could  err 
upon  matters  on  which  He  did  not  make  affirmation  that 
He  was  speaking  positively.  Mr.  Gore  says,  *  I  have  re- 
pudiated this  idea  on  three  separate  occasions.'  We  shall 
see  what  the  repudiation  comes  to.  With  respect  to  the 
'  Spectator '  and  the  '  Church  Quarterly,'  as  cited  in  the 
letter  above  referred  to  (p.  146),  I  marvel  that,  where  we 
might  have  looked  for  some  more  care  and  discernment, 
the  assumption,  the  irreverence  of  language,  the  figment 
of  our  Lord's  *  positive  affirmation  '  should  have  escaped 
them,  and  left  them  so  content  with  what  are  called  Mr. 
Gore's  *  explanations.' 

The  like  has  to  be  said  of  the  handing  over  to  that  high 
court  of  appeal  in  matters  of  faith,  'the  literary  critic'  of 
this  and  all  time  to  come,  the  final  decision  of  the  claim  of 
man's  reason  as  against  God's  Revelation, 

2.  The  principle,  or  basis,  underlying  the  claim. 

3.  The  '  invention  '  by  help  of  which  it  is  proposed  to 
substantiate  the  claim. 

4.  What  appears  to  the  mover  to  be  the  answer  of  the 
Church  of  England  against  the  claim. 

I.  The  claim  of  the  book  is  a  revised  faith  and  a  new 
development  of  theology"^.  I  have  to  pause  here  to  ask 
a  question  upon  use  of  language.  Preface  in  First  and 
Tenth  Editions,  p.  viii.,  {a)  '  outlying  departments  of 
theology,'  {b)  '  theology  must  take  a  new  development.' 

{a)  What  are  the  outlying  departments  of  theology  ?  It 
is  a  vague  and  arbitrary  division.  We  want  to  be  told 
distinctly  what  is  meant  by  '  outlying  departments,'  and 
we  are  told  nothing  beyond  what  is  inherent  in  the  word 
itself — i.e.,  less  important.  Who  is  to  measure  the  com- 
parative importance  ?  Now,  we  are  upon  a  matter  concern- 
ing the  true  interpretation  and  the  use  of  the  '  Word  of 
God,'   the   Holy  Scriptures  of  the   Old   and    New  Testa- 

•=  '  But  we  are  conscious  also  that,  if  the  true  meaning  of  the  faith  is  to 
be  made  sufficiently  conspicuous,  it  needs  disencumbering,  re-interpreting, 
explaining'  (Preface  to  First  and  Tenth  Editions).  I  call  this  'a  revised 
faith.'     What  else  is  it  ? 


J49 

ments.  Is  this,  then,  meant  to  be  included  under  the 
term  '  outlying  departments  ?'  If  so,  then  we  know  where 
we  are,  which  now  we  do  not.  {b)  Again,  '  a  new  de- 
velopment of  theology.'  Is  there  any  difference,  save  in 
words  only,  between  this  and  *a  new  theology?'  It  is 
much  to  be  regretted  that  we  should  have  to  deal  with 
language  so  vague  and  indefinite,  more  especially  when  it 
includes  the  word  '  theology.'  '  Theology,'  &eoXoyia 
(Plato,  lib.  3,  Politics)  is  defined  : — '  Sermo  aut  disputatio 
de  Deo,  rebusve  Divinis.  Donum  Dei  quo  Fides  salvifica 
ex  Deo  loquitur.' 

2.  The  principle,  or  basis,  underlying  the  claim  is  the 
reconciling,  with  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testaments,  the  conclusions  of  reason,  science,  philo- 
sophy, criticism,  old  and  new,  the  latter  more  particularly 
— call  it  what  you  will,  it  comes  to  the  same  thing — and 
where  this  cannot  be  done,  making  Holy  Scripture  give 
way  before  the  '  inventions  '  of  man's  reasoning  power. 

3.  The  invention,  by  help  of  which  it  is  proposed  to  sub- 
stantiate the  claim,  is  '  literary  criticism.'  The  weapon  in 
the  hands  of  the  literary  critic  of  this  and  all  succeeding 
generations  to  the  end  of  time  is  the  '  invention '  of  divid- 
ing our  Blessed  Lord's  teaching  in  the  Holy  Gospels  into 
'positive'  and  'non-positive' — the  literary  critic  to  be 
taken  as  having  the  right,  power,  and  proper  function  to 
discern  and  decide  what  is  '  positive '  and  what  is  '  non- 
positive  '  teaching  of  our  Blessed  Lord  in  connection  with 
the  Old  Scriptures. 

4.  It  has  fallen  into  my  poor  hands,  most  unworthy  of 
the  task,  to  say  what  appears  to  me  to  be  the  answer  of 
the  Church  of  England  to  the  claim,  and  to  the  invention 
it  proposes  to  employ  for  the  making  a  revised  faith  and 
a  new  development  of  theology. 

I.  I  proceed  to  state  the  claim  in  the  words  of  its  prin- 
cipal author.  The  Preface  to  the  First  and  subsequent 
Editions  of  'Lux  Mundi '  (1889)  has  the  passages  follow- 
ing:— 

{a)  The  writers  (of  the  essays   contained  in  the  volume)  found 


ISO 

themselves  compelled,  for  their  own  sake"*  no  less  than  that  of 
others,  to  attempt  to  put  the  Catholic  faith  into  its  riglit  relation  to 
modern  intellectual  and  moral  problems. 

{i)  For  this  collection  of  essays  represents  an  attempt  on  behalf 
of  the  Christian  Creed  in  the  way  of  explanation.  We  are  sure  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  still,  and  will  continue  to  be,  the  light  of  the  world. 
We  are  sure  that,  if  men  can  rid  themselves  of  prejudices  and 
mistakes  (for  which,  it  must  be  said,  the  Church  is  often  as  respon- 
sible as  they),  and  will  look  afresh  at  what  the  Christian  faith  really 
means,  they  will  find  that  it  is  as  adequate  as  ever  to  interpret  life 
and  knowledge  in  its  several  departments,  and  to  impart  not  less 
intellectual  than  moral  freedom.  But  we  are  conscious  also  that,  if 
the  true  meaning  of  the  faith  is  to  be  made  sufficiently  conspicuous, 
it  needs  disencumbering,  re-interpreting,  explaining. 

Then  follows,  in  the  same  paragraph,  a  passage  giving 
an  account  of  what  St.  Paul  means  by  interpreting  '  the 
unknown  tongue.'  It  would  appear  that  the  writer  is 
referring  to  vv.  13,  14  of  i  Cor.  xiv.  The  reference  seems 
to  be  hardly  entitled  to  be  called  a  reference  to  authority 
on  interpretation.  The  same  may  be  said  even  more  of 
the  use,  in  the  third  division  of  paragraph  3  of  our  Blessed 
Lord's  words,  '  The  truth  makes  her  (the  Church)  free.' 
These  arc  additional  instances  of  the  assumption  always 
ready  to  hand  : — 

(c)  We  have  written,  then,  in  this  volume,  not  as  '  guessers  at 
truth,'  but  as  servants  of  the  Catholic  Creed  and  Church,  aiming  only 
at  interpreting  the  faith  we  have  received. 

How  this  consists  with  the  '  disencumbering  '  (whatever 
that  may  mean)  and  the  '  re-interpreting,'  the  principal 
parts  of  the  claim  of  '  Lux  Mundi,'  is  not  stated  :  the 
ambiguity  of  language  is  of  itself  a  ground  for  heavy  com- 
plaint against  '  Lux  Mundi.' 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  written  with  the  conviction  that  the 
epoch  in  which  we  live  is  one  of  profound  transformation,  intellectual 
and  social,  abounding  in  new  needs,  new  points  of  view,  new  ques- 
tions, and  certain  therefore  to  involve  great  changes  in  the  outlying 
departments  of  theology,  where  it  is  linked  on  to  other  sciences,  and 

■*  The  words  '  for  their  own  sake '  are  full  of  significance  in  respect  of 
where  it  was  that  the  'distress  of  faith'  began,  and  led,  with  combined 
external  causes,  to  the  issue  of  '  Lux  Mundi.' 


151 

to  necessitate  some  general  re-statement  of  its  claim  and  meaning. 
This  is  to  say,  that  theology  must  take  a  new  development. 

It  appears  to  me  to  be  impossible  to  arrive  at  any  other 
conclusion  from  the  above  passages  than  this — that  what 
is  required  at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  of  re- 
demption is  a  faith  different  from  that  we  have  received  at 
the  hands  of  the  Church,  and  a  new  development  of 
theology.  I  pass  by  the  confusion  of  language  in  which 
this  is  conveyed.  The  fact,  I  submit,  remains  as  I  have 
stated  it.  I  may  add  here,  by  way  of  illustration  of  the 
character  of  the  book,  and  of  the  extent  of  it,  some  words 
from  paragraph  4  :  — 

To  such  development  these  studies  attempt  to  be  a  contribution. 
They  will  seem  to  cover,  more  or  less,  the  area  of  the  Christian  faith 
in  its  natural  order  and  sequence  of  parts. 

The  extent  then  and  proposed  operation  of  the  attempt 
is  in  itself  plain.  In  the  Preface  to  the  Fifth  Edition  we 
read  : — 

The  author  of  the  essay  'The  Holy  Spirit  and  Inspiration'  has 
endeavoured  to  obviate  further  misunderstanding  of  his  meaning  on 
one  important  point,  by  rewriting  some  sentences  on  pp.  359-63,  in 
accordance  with  the  corrigenda  inserted  in  the  Fourth  Edition. 

In  the  Preface  to  Tenth  Edition,  p.  i,  is  the  note  follow- 
ing :— 

By  the  phrase  '  to  attempt  to  put  the  Catholic  faith  into  its  right 
relation  to  modern  intellectual  and  moral  problems  '  (Preface  to  First 
Edition)  it  was  not  by  any  means  intended  to  suggest  that  the 
modern  problems  or  the  modern  sciences  were  the  things  of  first 
importance,  and  the  faith  only  secondary.  What  was  intended  was 
that,  as  holding  the  faith,  we  needed,  as  the  Church  has  often  needed, 
to  bring  that  with  which  we  are  ourselves  identified  into  relation  to 
the  claims,  intellectual  and  practical,  made  upon  us  from  outside. 

Upon  this  I  rejoin  that  if,  somehow  or  other,  faith  is,  to 
use  the  writer's  own  language,  to  be  '  brought  into  relation 
to^  the  claims,  intellectual  and  practical,  made  upon  us 
from  outside,'  what  this  comes  to  is  that,  somehow  or 
other,  faith  is  to  hand  over  its  supremacy  to  the  reasoning 

*  Qu.   What  is  the  exact  logical  import  of '  into  relation  to  ? ' 


152 

power,  and  is  to  become  the  secondar>',  not  the  primar)-, 
basis  upon  which  we  have  to  build.  Now,  our  Lord  says, 
'  If  thou  canst  believe  ;  all  thinc^s  are  possible  to  him  that 
believeth.'  He  does  not  say.  '  If  thou  canst  understand, 
all  things  are  possible  to  him  that  understandeth.' 

II.   I    have  stated    the  claim    of  'Lux    Mundi '   in   the 
words  of  the  book. 

I  come  next  in  order  to  the  principle  or  basis  underlying 
the  claim.      Bear  with    me,    brethren    in  Christ,  while  I 
speak  upon  this  point.     I  pray  and  strive  that  no  harsh 
or  unworthy  word  may  pass  my  lips.     The  principle,  or 
basis,  underlying  the  claim  is  as  old   as  Christianity  itself. 
It  is  older  still.     It    is  found  in  the  earliest  records   of 
creation.     It  appears  for  the  first  time  in  Genesis  iii.  i   in 
its  most  complete  form,  and  issues  in  the  words,  'Yea, 
hath  God  said  ? '    The  three  temptations  of  man,  the  three 
by  which  our  Blessed  Lord  was  tempted  in  the  wilderness, 
and  as  He  tells  us  Himself,  not  in  the  wilderness  only — 
St.  Luke  xxii.  28— are  stated  by  St.  John  to  be  'the  lust 
of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  the  pride  of  life'  (i  St. 
John  ii.   16),  corresponding  exactly  to  those  recorded  in 
St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke,  the  order  only  being  in  one 
respect  difi"erent  in  the  two  Gospels.     '  The  pride  of  life ' 
is  the  worship  of  the  reasoning  power — our  first  mother 
bowed  down  before  it.     It  was  the  temptation  by  which 
she  fell.     The  Tempter  used  it  to  suggest  the  other  two, 
but  he  tempted  her  through  her  reasoning  power — '  Yea, 
hath  God  said  ? '    He  tempted  her  to  doubt  the  Word  of 
God.     It  opened   the  door.     The  other  temptations  fol- 
lowed  in  its  train   and  the  world  fell.     It  is  out  of  this 
order   of    Revelation    that    the    temptation    through    the 
reasoning  power  is  called  specially  the  temptation  *  of  the 
Devil ' — that  which  gave  the  signal  to  the  other  two  temp- 
tations to  begin  to  add  their  work.     It  is  the  worship  of 
reason.      The  doubting  God   in    His  Word   is  the  basis, 
the  principle  of  all  sin.      We  know  that  God  is  by  His 
works — we   know  Him   in   His   relations  to  man  by  His 
Word.     The  world  as  we  see  it  tells  us  that  God  is.     The 


153 

Word  of  God  tells  us  of  the  relations  of  God  to  man.  If, 
then,  I  am  asked  to  lay  hand  upon  the  Word  of  God  as 
committed  to  me  by  the  Church  in  which  the  providence 
of  God  has  placed  me,  I  do  not  do  it  because  I  may  not 
do  it.  If  I  am  asked  to  put  Revelation  into  one  scale  and 
the  reasoning  power — science,  philosophy,  literary  criticism, 
call  it  what  you  will — into  the  other,  and  to  commit  the 
issue  to  which  wcic,^hs  the  heaviest,  I  decline  to  do  it,  not 
because  I  am  in  any  fear  for  the  issue,  but  because  this 
suggestion  is  a  mockery  of  holy  things,  and  a  defiance  of 
God.  What  my  reasoning  power  may  not  comprehend  I 
leave — as  I  leave  the  mysteries  of  the  Divine  nature — as  I 
find  it.  There  is  much  more  than  enough  upon  which  to 
employ  all  my  reasoning  power  in  its  own  province  in  my 
own  little  life  without  seeking  to  rush  in  where  angels 
desire  to  look  into  but  fear  to  tread. 

It  is  the  overpowering  sense  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
point  now  at  issue  which  has  compelled  me  to  do  what 
little  is  in  my  power  to  bring  it  formally  before  the  House. 
I  contend  for  the  absolute  supremacy  of  the  Word  of  God 
as  given  us  by  the  authority  of  the  Church  of  England.  I 
contend  for  the  simple  truth  that  if  the  reasoning  power 
find  anything  which  appears  to  dispute  that  supremacy,  it 
is  for  the  reasoning  power  to  leave  it  to  the  light  of  the 
world  that  is  to  come,  when  the  reasoning  power  passes 
away  in  the  fulness  of  the  Light  that  is  in  heaven.  I 
believe  there  to  be  no  other  safety  for  the  wisest,  the  most 
learned  of  men.  I  believe,  further,  that  it  is  this  simplicity 
of  faith  on  their  part  which  is,  under  God,  a  necessary 
security  for  the  faith  of  the  unlearned  millions  of  men. 

III.  I  pass  on  now  {a)  to  the  'invention'  by  which  it  is 
proposed  to  substantiate  the  claim  ;  {b)  to  the  hand  to  be 
employed  to  substantiate  it  ;  {c)  to  the  test  by  which  the 
claim  is  to  be  decided  in  each  case,  [a)  The  '  invention  ' 
is  the  dividing  the  teaching  of  our  Blessed  Lord,  in  con- 
nection with  the  Old  Scriptures,  into  '  positive  '  and  '  non- 
positive  ; '  {b)  the  hand  to  be  employed  in  so  dividing  is 
the  hand  of  '  the  literary  critic,'  of  this,  and  all  future  time  ; 


154 

(c)  the  test  to  be  applied  for  so  dividing  is  whether  our 
Blessed  Lord  in  each  case  of  His  teaching  as  above  stated, 
affirms  that  He  is  teaching  positively  or  does  not  so  affirm. 

I  note  upon  this  point  the  first  suggestion  of  the  division 
of  our  Blessed  Lord's  teaching  in  connection  with  the  Old 
Scriptures  into  'positive'  and  'non-positive'  in  p.  359  in 
Ed.  L,  in  p.  359  in  Ed.  X.  His  teaching  by  question 
upon  a  point  raised  is  there  excluded  from  the  number  of 
things  in  their  nature  positive  by  assumption  meant  to  be 
logical,  but  not  logical. 

I  am  compelled  to  ask  attention  here  to  the  fact  that 
the  general  character  of  the  Essay,  as  of  the  Preface,  is 
assumption  and  not  conclusion  from  premisses.  The  book 
worships  reason  ;  but  it  does  not  reason,  it  assumes.  It 
presents  a  curious  aspect  of  the  once  logical  Oxford.  In 
both  Preface  and  Essay  assumption  is  large,  vagueness  is 
large,  logic  is  lacking.  And  indeed,  if  we  well  consider 
a  moment,  this  could  hardly  be  otherwise  in  the  matter  in 
hand.  If  there  had  been  room  for  logic  in  canvassing  and 
questioning  the  one  Book  in  the  world  which  contains  the 
Revelation  of  God  to  man,  and  the  consequent  relations 
of  man  to  God,  it  might  have  been  otherwise.  But  there 
being  no  such  book  but  one — '  The  Word  of  God,'  '  The 
Book  ' — there  is  no  room  for  logic.  Therefore  it  is  that 
the  only  inroad  upon  the  Book  containing  all  that  man 
will  ever  know  on  this  side  of  the  grave  is  by  way  of  man's 
assumption  based  upon  the  only  other  basis  remaining  to 
him — that  is  to  say,  upon  his  finite  knowledge — his  science 
as  it  is  called,  but  which  it  is  continually  proving  against 
itself  is  '  falsely  so  called,'  and  if  it  were  not  so  proved  up 
to  any  given  time,  would  still  be  as  nothing  to  the  millions 
of  men,  whatever  it  might  be  to  '  the  literary  critic,'  and 
might  at  any  time  be  tumbled  down  or  superseded  by 
another  literary  critic  or  scientist,  after  the  manner  of 
scientists  on  other  subject-matters. 

What  shall  become  of  the  millions  of  the  unlearned 
among  the  little  controversies  of  our  little  life  ?  This 
becomes   of  them,  that   the   one   thing   they   have   been 


155 

taught  from  their  youth  up  always,  under  every  circum- 
stance, most  to  respect  and  cHng  to  as  the  anchor  of  their 
hope  is  cut  away  from  under  their  feet ;  cut  away  and 
nothing  left  for  them  to  stand  upon  in  its  room,  and  all 
this  in  the  futile  attempt  to  succour  the  distressed  faith  of 
the  man  taught  of  his  learning  and  so-called  science  to 
doubt  the  Word  of  God. 

Mr.  Gore,  in  his  letter  published  in  the  'Guardian,' 
October  22,  1889,  has  represented  the  claim  and  function 
of  the  literary  critic  as  a  supreme  claim  and  highest 
function.  In  dealing  with  these  three  points  I  take  them 
in  their  inverse  order,  because  the  last  disposed  of,  the 
other  two  disappear.  If  the  test  proposed  be  found  to 
have  no  existence  in  fact,  the  literary  critic  has  nothing  to 
work  with  to  the  end  of  arriving  at  the  proposed  division 
of  our  Blessed  Lord's  teaching  in  connection  with  the  Old 
Scriptures  into  '  positive '  and  '  non-positive,'  and  the  con- 
tention of  '  Lux  Mundi  '  in  respect  of  the  right,  power,  and 
proper  function  of  the  literary  critic  of  this  and  all  future 
time  falls  to  the  ground  mole  sud. 

Now  to  the  end  of  elucidating  to  the  best  of  my  power 
whether  there  be  any  room  for  the  test  proposed,  I  have 
examined  with  all  due  care  the  language  of  the  Four 
Gospels  throughout.  I  find  citations  from,  and  references 
to,  the  Old  Scriptures  by  our  Blessed  Lord  to  be,  as  we 
all  know,  very  many,  besides  many  coincidences  of  teach- 
ing and  passages  of  connection  between  the  Old  and  New 
Scriptures,  without  citation  from  or  reference  to,  by  our 
Blessed  Lord.  These  two  classes  are,  therefore,  not  in- 
cluded in  my  enumeration  as  given  here  : — 


Passages    in  which    our   Blessed  Lord  cites  or  refers  to 
passages  in  the  Old  Scriptures. 

St.  Matthew 256 

St.  Mark 55 

St.  Luke 130 

St.  John             86 

527 


156 

Passages  in  the  Gospels  in  which  our  Blessed  Lord  cites 
from  or  refers  to  the  Old  Scriptures. 

St.  Matthew. 
Chap.  i. 
Chap.  ii. 
Chap.  iii.  ver.  15  refers  to  the  Providence  of  God  as  revealed  in  the 

Old  Scriptures. 
Chap.  iv.  ver.  4  to  Deut.  viii.  3  ;  ver.  7  to  Deut.  vi.  16  ;  ver.  10  to 
Deut.  vi.  13,  X.  20,  Joshua  xxiv.  14,  i  Sam.  vii.  3;  verses  12 — 16, 
reference  by  way  of  fulfilment  of  prophecy,  Isaiah  ix.  i,  2,  xlii.  7. 
Chap  v.  ver.  3  to  Isaiah  Ivii.  15,  Ixvi,  2,  Ixi.  2,  3,  Psalms  xxxvii.  li  ; 
ver.  6  to  Isaiah  Iv.  i,  Ixv.  13;  ver.  7,  Psalms  xli.  i  ;  ver.  8  to  Psalms 
XV.  2;  ver.  12  to  i  Chron.  xxx.  16,  Nehem.  ix.  26,  Prov.  iv.  18  ;  ver. 
21  to  Exod.  XX.  13.  Deut.  v.  17  ;  ver.  7,  Exod.  xx.  14,  Deut.  v.  18  ; 
ver.  28  to  Job  xxx.  i,  Prov.  vi.  25  ;  ver.  31,  Deut.  xxiv.  I,  Jer.  iii.  i  ; 
ver.  33,  Exod.  xx.  7,  Levit.  xix.,  Numb.  xxx.  2,  Deut.  v.  1 1,  xxiii.  23 ; 
ver.  34,  Isaiah  Ixv.  i ;  ver.  35,  Psalms  xlviii.   2,  Ixxxvii.  3  ;  ver.  38, 
Exod.  xxi.  24,  Levit.  xxiv.  20,  Deut.  xix.  21  ;  ver.  39,  Prov.  xx.  22, 
Isaiah  1.  6;  ver.  42,  Deut.  xv.  8,  10  :  ver.  43,  Levit.  xix.  18,  Deut, 
xxiii.  6  ;  verses  43 — 48,  Psalms  xli.   10,  Job  xxv.  3,  Gen.  xvii.   i, 
Levit.  xi.  44,  xix.  2. 
Chap.  vi.  ver.  6  to  2  Kings  iv.  23  ;  ver.  10  to  Psalms  ciii.  20,  21  ;  ver. 
13  to  I  Chron.  xxix.  1 1  ;  ver.  17  to  Isaiah  Iviii.  5,  Ruth  iii.  3,  Dan. 
x.  3;    ver.    19,  Prov.  xxiii.  4;    ver.  26  to  Job  xxxviii.  41,  Psalms 
cxlix.  9. 
Chap.  vii.  verses  7,  8  to  Prov.  viii.  17,  Jerem.  xxix.  12,  13;  ver.  12  to 
Levit.  xix.  18  ;  ver.  15  to  Deut.  xiii.  3,  Jerem.  xxiii.  16,  Micah  iii.  5  ; 
ver.  22  to  Numb.  xxiv.  4  ;  ver.  23  to  Psalms  v.  5,  vi.  8;  note  also 
ver.  29. 
Chap.  viii.  ver.  4,  Levit.  xiv.  3,  4,  10;  ver.  11  to  Gen,  xii.  3,  Isaiah  ii. 
2,  3,  xi.  10,  Mai.  i.  II  ;  ver.  17  to  Isaiah  liii.  4;  ver.  26,  Psalms  Ixv. 
7,  Ixxxix.  9,  cvii.  29. 
Chap.  ix.  ver.  4,  Psalms  cxxxix.  2;  ver.  13  to  Hosea  vi.  6,  Micah  vi. 
6 — 8  ;  ver.  36  to  Numb,  xxxvii.  7,  i  Kings  xxii.  17,  Ezek.  xxiv.  3, 
Zech.  X.  2. 
Chap.  X.  ver.  6  to  Isaiah  liii.  6,  Jerem.  1.  6,  17,  Ezek.  xxxiv.  5,  6,  10 ; 
ver.  13  to  Nehem.  v.  13,  Psalms  xxxv.  13;  ver.  19,  Exod.  iv.  12, 
Jerem.  i.  7 ;  ver.  21,  Micah  vii.  6;  ver.  22  to  Dan.  xii.  12,  13 ;  ver. 
28  to  Isaiah  viii.  12,  13  ;  ver.  35,  Micah  vii.  6,  Psalms  xli.  9,  Iv.  13. 
Chap.  xi.  ver.  4  to   Isaiah  xxix.  18,  xxxv.  4 — 6,  xl.  7,  Psalms  xxii. 
26,  Isaiah  Ixi.  I  ;  ver.  6,  Isaiah  viii.   14,  15  ;  ver.   10  to  Mai.  iii. 
I  ;  ver.  13  to  Mai.  iv.  6  ;  ver.  15,  Mai.  iv.  5 ;  ver.  21  to  Jonah  iii.  7, 
8;  ver.  29  to  Zech.  ix.  9,  Jerem.  vi.  16. 


157 

Chap.  xii.  ver.  3  to  i  Sam.  xxi.  6 ;  ver,  4,  Exod.  xxv.  30,  Levit.  xxiv. 
5,  Exod.  xxix.  32,  33,  Levit.  viii.  31,  xxiv.  9;  ver.  5  to  Numb,  xxviii. 
9  ;  ver.  6  to  2  Cliron.  vi.  18  ;  ver.  7,  Mai.  iii.  i,  to  Rosea  vi.  6, 
Micah  vi.  6—8;  ver.  11  to  Deut.  xxii.  4;  ver.  18  to  Isaiah  xlii. 
I  ;  ver.  28  to  Dan.  ii.  44,vii.  14;  ver.  39  to  Isaiah  Ivii.  3;  verses  39, 
40  to  Jonah  i.  17  ;  ver.  41,  Ezek.  xvi.  51,  52,  Jonah  iii.  5  ;  ver.  42  to 

1  Kings  x.  I,  2  Chron.  ix.  i  ;  ver.  43,  Job  i.  7. 

Chap.  xiii.  ver.  14,  Isaiah  vi.  9,  Ezek.  xii.  2 ;  ver.  20  to  Isaiah  Iviii.  2, 
Ezek.  xxxiii.  31,  32  ;  ver.  22  to  Jerem.  iv.  3  ;  ver.  35,  Psalms  Ixxviii. 

2  ;  ver.  38  to  Gen.  iii.  15  ;  ver.  39  to  Joel  iii.  I3J  ver.  43,  Dan.  xii.  3. 
Chap.  xiv. 

Chap.  XV.  ver.  4  to  Exod.  xx.  12,  Levit.  xix.  3,  Deut.  v.  16,  Prov.  xxiii. 

32,  Exod.  xxi.  17,  Levit.  xx.  9,  Deut.  xxvii.  16,  Prov.  xx.  2o,xxx.  17; 

ver.  8,  Ezek.  xxx.  31  ;  yer.  9,  Isaiah  xxix.  13 ;  ver.  19  to  Gen.  vi.  5, 

viii.  21,  Jerem.  xvii.  9. 
Chap.  xvi.  ver.  4  to  the  prophet  Jonas  ;  ver.  27  to  Job  xxiv.  1 1,  Psalms 

Ixii.  12,  Prov.  xxiv.  12,  Jerem.  xvii.  10,  xxxii.  19. 
Chap.  xvii.  ver.  10  to  Mai.  iv.  5,  6. 

Chap,  xviii.  ver.  15  to  Levit.  xix.  17  ;  ver.  16,  Deut.  xvii.  6,  xix.  15. 
Chap.  xix.  ver,  4  to  Gen.  i.  27,  v.  2,  Mai.  ii.  15  ;  ver.  5  to  Gen.  ii.  24; 

verses  16—19  to  Exod.  xx.  13,  Deut.  v.  17  ;  ver.  8  to  Deut.  xxiv.  i ; 

ver.  26,  Gen.  xviii.  14,  Job  xlii.  2,  Jerem.  xxxii.  17. 
Chap.  XX.  ver.  28,  Isaiah  liii.  10,  n,  Daniel  ix.  24—26. 
Chap.  xxi.  ver.  5  to  Isaiah  Ixii.  11,  Zech.  ix.  9  ;  ver.  13  to  Isaiah  Ivi. 

7,  Jerem.  vii.  n  ;  ver.  16,  Psalms  viii.  2;  ver.  33  to  Isaiah  v.   r, 

Jerem.  ii.  21  ;  ver.  35  to  2  Chron.  xxiv.  i,  xxxvi.  16,  Nehem.  xviii. 

26;  ver.  38  to  Psalms  ii.  2;  ver.  42  to  Psalms  cxviii.  22,  Isaiah 

xxviii.  16;  ver.  44  to  Isaiah  viii.  14,  15,  Zech.  xii.  3;  Dan.  ii.  44. 
Chap.  xxii.  ver.  24,  Deut.  xxv.  5;    ver.  32  to  Exod.  iii.  6,  16;  ver. 

37  to  Deut.  vi.  5,  X.  12,  xxx.  6;  ver.  39  to  Levit.  xix.  18,  ver.  44  to 

Psalms  ex.  i. 
Chap,  xxiii.  ver.  2  to  Nehem.  viii.  4—8,  Mai.  ii.  7  ;  ver.  5  to  Numb. 

xvi.   38,   Deut.   vi.  8,  xxii.   12;    verses  16—21   to  Exod.  xxx.  20, 

xxix.    37  :    ver.    21  to    i    Kings  viii.    13  ;    2    Chron.  vi,   2,  Psalms 

xxvi.  8,  cxxxii.  14;    ver.  22,  Psalms  xi.  4;    ver.  23  to  i  Sam.  xv. 

22,  Rosea  vi.  6,  Micah  vi.   8;    ver.   35  to  Gen.  iv.   8,  2  Chron. 

xxiv.    20,    21  ;    ver.    37    to    Deut,    xxxii.     11,    12,    Psalms   xci.    4; 

ver.  39  to  Psalms  cxviii.  26. 
Chap.   xxiv.   ver.    2   to   i    Kings   v.   7,  Jerem.   xxvi.    18,   Micah   iii. 

12;  ver.  5  to  Jerem.  xiv.   14,  xxiii.  21—25;   ver,  7  to  2   Chron, 

XV.  6;    ver.    15  to   Dan.  ix.  27,  xii.   11,    Dan.  ix.  23,   25;    v,  21, 

Dan,   ix,   26,  xii.   i,  Joel  ii.    2  ;    ver,    22,  Isaiah  Ixv,   8,  9,  Zech. 

xiv.    23 ;    ver,   24,   Deut.   xiii.    1  ;    ver.    28,   Job  xxxix.   30 ;    ver, 

29  to    Isaiah   xiii.    10,   Ezek.    xxxii.   7.   Joel   ii.    10,    3^)   i"-    ^S» 
Amos   V.    20,   viii.   9;    ver.    30  to   Dan.   vii.    13,   Zech.    xu.    12; 


158 

ver.  35  to  Psalms  cii.  26,  to  Isaiah  li.  6,  Jer.  xxxi.  35,  36 ;    ver. 

36,  Zech,  xiv.  7 ;  ver.  38  to  Gen.  vi.  3—5,  vii.  7. 
Chap.  XXV.  ver.  31  to  Zech.  xiv.  5  ;   ver.  32  to  Ezek.  xx.  38,  xxxiv. 

17,  20;    verses  34—40  to  Isaiah  Iviii.  7,  Ezek.  xviii.  7;    ver.  40 

to  Prov.  xiv.  31,  xix.  17 ;  ver.  41,  Psalms  vi.  8. 
Chap.  xxvi.  ver.   11   to  Deut.  xv.   11;   ver.  23,  Psalms  xli.  9;    ver. 

24  to  Psalms  xxii.  Isaiah  liii.,  Dan.  ix.  26;   ver.  28,  Jerem.  xxxi. 

31;    ver.    31   to  Zech.  xiii.   7;    ver.   50  to  Psalms  xli.  9,   Iv.   13; 

ver.   52,  Gen.  ix.  6;    ver.   53  to  Dan.   vii.    10;   ver.   54  to   Isaiah 

liii.  7,  &c.;  ver.  56  to  Lam.  iv.  20;  ver.  64,  Dan.  vii.   13,  Psalms 

ex.  I. 
Chap,  xxvii.  ver.  46  to  Psalms  xxii.  i. 
Chap,  xxviii.  ver.  15  to  Dan.  vii.  13,  14;  ver.  19  to  Isaiah  Hi.  10. 


St.  Mark. 

Chap.   i.  ver.   15  to  Dan.  vii.  27  and  ix.  25;   ver.   38  to   Isaiah  Ixi. 

1  ;  ver.  44  to  Levit.  xiv.  3,  4,  10. 

Chap.  ii.  verses  25— 28  to  i    Sam.  xii.  6,  Exod.  xxix.  32,  33,  Levit. 

xxiv.  9. 
Chap.  iii. 

Chap.  iv.  ver.  12  to  Isaiah  vi.  9. 
Chap.  v. 

Chap.  vi.  ver.  1 1  to  Gen.  xix. 
Chap.  vii.  ver.  6  to  Isaiah  xxix.  13;    verses  8 — 13  to  Exod.  xx.  12. 

Deut.  V.  16,  Exod.  xxi.  17,  Levit.  xx.  9. 
Chap.  viii. 
Chap.  ix.  verses   11 — 13  to   Mai.   iv.    5,   Psalms  xxii.  6,   Isaiah  liii. 

2,    Dan.   i.x.    26;   ver.  44   to    Isaiah   Ixvi.    24;    ver.   49   to   Levit. 

ii.  13,  Ezek.  xliii.  24. 
Chap.  X.  ver.  6  to  Gen.  i.  and  ii.,  Deut.  xxiv.  i.  Gen.  v.  2;   ver.  7 

to  Gen.  ii.  24 ;  ver.  19  to  Exod.  xx. ;  v.  27  to  Jerem.  xxxii.  11. 
Chap.  xi.  ver.  17  to  Isaiah  Ivi.  7,  Jerem.  vii.  11. 
Chap.  xii.  ver.  10  to  Psalms  cxviii.  22;    verses  18 — 37  to  Deut.  v. 

5,  Exod.  iii.  6,  Deut.  vi.  4,  Levit.  xix.    18,   Deut.  iv.   39,    Isai.ih 

xiv.  6,   14;  ver.  9,  J    Sam.  xv.  22,   Hosea  vi.  6,   Micah  vi,  7,  8, 

2  Sam.  xxiii.  2,  Psalms  ex.  i. 

Chap,  xiii,  verses  5 — 31  to  Jerem.  xxix.  8,   Micah  vii.  6.  Dan.  xii. 

12,  ix.  27,  Dan.  ix.  26,  xii.   i,  Joel  ii.  2,   Dan.   vii.    10,  Zeph.    i. 

15,  Dan.  vii.  13,  14,  Isaiah  xl.  8. 
Chap.   xiv.  ver.  27  to   Zech.  xiii.  7;   ver.  49  to   Isaiah  liii.  7,  &c., 

Psalms  XX.  6. 
Chap.  XV.  ver.  34  to  Psalms  xxii.  i. 
Chap.  xvi. 


159 

St.  Luke, 

Chap.  i. 

Chap.  ii. 

Chap.  iii. 

Chap.  iv.  ver  4  to  Deut.  viii.  3;  ver.  8  to  Deut.  vi.  13;  ver.  12 
to  Deut.  vi.  16;  iVerses  18 — 21  to  Isaiah  Ixi.  i;  verses  25—27 
to  I  Kings  xvii.  9,  xviii.  i,  2  Kings  v.  14. 

Chap.  v.  ver.  14  to  Levit.  xiv.  4,  10,  21,  22. 

Chap.  vi.  verses  3—5  to  i  Sam.  xxi.  6,  Levit.  xxiv.  9;  verses  6— 
10  refer  to  'the  Law;'  verses  28—38  to  Isaiah  Iv.  i,  Ixv.  13, 
Ixi.  3,  Amos  vi.  i,  Isaiah  Ixv.  13,  Prov.  xiv.  13,  xix.  17,  Psalms 
Ixxix.  12  ;  ver.  46  to  Mai.  i.  6. 

Chap.  vii.  ver.  22  to  Isaiah  xxxv.  5;  verses  27,  28,  to  Mai.  iii.  5; 
ver.  46  to  Psalms  xxiii.  5. 

Chap.  viii.  ver.  10  to  Isaiah  vi.  9. 

Chap.  ix.  verses  54—56  to  2  Kings  i.  10,  12. 

Chap.  x.  verses  4-16  to  2  Kings  iv.  29,  Ezek.  iii.  6,  Deut.  i.  28, 
Isaiah  xiv.  13,  Jerem.  li.  58  ;  verses  20,  21,  Exod.  xxxii.  32,  Psalms 
Ixix.  28,  Isaiah  iv.  3,  Dan.  xii.  i  ;  verses  26—28,  Deut.  vi.  5,  Levit- 
xix.  18,  xviii.  5,  Nehem.  ix.  29,  Ezek.  xx.  u,  13,  21  ;  ver.  31  to 
Psalms  xxviii.  1 1. 

Chap.  xi.  verses  20 — 22  to  Exod.  viii.  19,  Isaiah  liii.  12  ;  verses  30— 
32  to  Jonah  i.  17,  ii.  10,  i  Kings  x.  I,  Jonah  xii.  5  ;  ver.  41  to  Isaiah 
Iviii.  7,  Dan.  iv.  27  ;  verses  50,  51  to  Gen.  iv.  8,  2  Chron.  xxiv. 
20,  21. 

Chap.  xii.  ver.  4  to  Isaiah  li.  7,  Jerem.  i.  8  ;  ver.  19  to  Eccles.  xi.  9  ; 
verses  19 — 24  to  Job  xxvii.  8,  and  xx.  22,  Psalms  Iii.  7,  xxxix.  6, 
Jerem.  xvii.  11,  Job  xxxviii.  41,  Psalms  cxlvii.  9;  verses  47,  48  to 
Numb.  XV.  30,  Deut.  xxv.  2,  Levit.  v.  17  ;  ver.  52  to  Micah  vii.  6  ; 
ver.  58  to  Prov.  xxv.  8. 
Chap.  xiii.  ver.  6  to  Isaiah  v.  2 ;  verses  14 — 16  to  Exod.  xx.  9  ;  ver. 

25  to  Psalms  xxxii.  6,  Isaiah  Iv.  6 ;  ver.  27  to  Psalms  vi.  8  :  verses 
33 — 35  to  Levit.  xxvi.  31,  32,  Psalms  Ixix.  25,  Isaiah  i.  7.  Dan.  ix. 
27,  Micah  iii.  12,  Psalms  cxviii.  26. 

Chap.  xiv.  verses  3 — 5  to  Exod.  xxiii.  5,  Deut.  xxii.  4;  ver.  10,  Prov. 

xxv.  6,  7  ;  ver.  1 1  to  Job  xxii.  2,  9,  Psalms  xviii.  27,  Prov.  xxix.  23  ; 

ver.  13  to  Nehem.  vii.  10,  12;  ver.  17  to  Prov.  ix.  2,  3;  ver.  26  to 

Deut.  xiii.  6,  xxxiii.  9. 
Chap.  XV.  ver.  21  to  Psalms  li.  4. 
Chap.  xvi.  ver.  15  to  i  Sam.  xvi.  7;  ver,  17  to  Isaiah  xl.  3,  Ii.  6;  ver. 

34  to  Isaiah  Ixvi.  24  ;  verses  29—31  to  Isaiah  xxxiv.  16;  ver.  29  to 

Jerem.  vi.  16,  Isaiah  viii.  20. 
Chap.  xvii.  ver.  3  to  Levit.  xix.  27  ;  ver.  14  to  Levit.  xiii.  2,  xiv.  2  ;  ver. 

26  to  Gen.  vii. ;  verses  28,  29,  ;i5  to  Gen.  xix. 

Chap,  xviii.  ver.  20  to  Exod.  xx.  12 — 16,  Deut.  v.  16 — 20;  ver.  27  to 
Jerem.  xxxii.  17,  Psalms  xxii,,  Isaiah  liii. 


i6o 

Chap.  xix.  verses  8,  9  to  Exod.  xxii,  i,  l  Sam.  xii.  3  ;  ver.  40,  H;ib.  xi. 
1 1  ;  verses  42 — 44  to  Isaiah  xxix.  3,  4,  Jerem.  vi.  3,  6,  i  Kings  ix. 
7,  8,  Micah  iii.  12  ;  ver.  4  to  Isaiah  Ivi.  7,  Jerem.  vii.  11. 

Chap.  XX.  ver.  17  to  Psalms  cxviii.  22  ;  ver.  18  to  Dan.  ii.  34,  35  ;  ver. 
27  to  Isaiah  xxv.  5,  Exod.  iii.  6,  Psalms  ex.  i. 

Chap.  xxi.  ver.  16  to  Micah  vii.  6  ;  ver,  22  to  Dan.  ix.  2,  6,  7,  Zcch. 
xi.  I,  Dan.  xii.  7, 

Chap.  xxii.  ver.  21  to  Psalms  xii.  9;  ver.  31  to  Amos  ix.  9  ;  ver.  37  to 
Isaiah  liii.  12. 

Chap,  xxiii.  ver.  30  to  Isaiah  xi.  19,  Hosea  x.  8  ;  ver.  31  to  Ezek.  xv. 
47  ;  ver.  46  to  Psalms  xxxi.  5. 

Chap.  xxiv.  verses  25 — 27  to  Gen.  iii.  15,  xxii.  18,  xxvi.  4,  xlix.  The 
chapter  is  all  a  series  of  connecting  links  of  the  most  comprehen- 
sive character  between  '  the  Law,  the  Psalms,  and  the  Prophets'— 
two-thirds  of  it  by  our  Blessed  Lord  Himself — and  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  the  Old  Scriptures  and  the  New.  He  expounded  to  them 
in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning  Himself,  beginning  at 
Moses  and  all  the  prophets,  closing  at  ver.  49  with  the  promise  of 
the  Spirit,  Isaiah  xliv.  3,  Joel  ii.  28. 

If  it  stood  by  itself  it  is  a  testimony  vouchsafed  of  the  Spirit 
against  the  questioning  by  man  of  the  Divine  authority  of  any 
portion  of  Holy  Scripture. 

St.  John. 
Chap.  i.  verses  47 — 51  to  Psalms  xxx.  2,  Gen.  xxviii.  12. 
Chap.  ii. 
Chap.  iii.  ver.  10,  a  direct  reference  to  the  Jewish  Church  ;  ver.  13  to 

Prov.  xxx.  4  ;  ver.  14  to  Numb.  xxi.  9  ;  ver.  20  Job  xxiv,  13,  17. 
Chap.  iv.  verses  6 — 26,  Isaiah  xii.  3,  xliv.  3,  Jerem.  11,  13,  Zech.  xiii. 

I,  xiv.  8,  Mai.  i.    11 ;   ver.  22  to  2   Kings  xvii.  29;    ver.  34,  Job 

xxiii.  12. 
Chap.  V.  verses  27 — 29,  Dan.  vii.  13,  14,  Isaiah  xxvi.  19,  Dan.  xii.  2; 

ver.  37,  Deut.  iv.  12  ;  ver.  39  to  Isaiah  xxiv.  16,  Deut.  xviii.  15,  18  ; 

verses  45 — 47,  Gen.  iii.  15,  xii.  3,  xviii.  18,  xxii,  18,  xlix,  10,  Deut. 

xviii,  15,  18. 
Chap.  vi.  ver.  31,  Exod.  xvi.  15,  Numb.  xi.  7,  Nehem.  ix.  15,  Psalms 

l.xxviii.  24,  25  ;  verses  45,  46,  Isaiah  liv,  13,  Jerem,  xxxi.  34,  Micah 

iv.  2. 
Chap.  vii.  ver,  19  to  Exod.  xxiv,  3,  Deut.  xxxiii.  4;  ver.  22  to  Levit. 

xii.  3,  Gen.  xvii.  10  ;  ver.  24,  Deut.  i.  16,  17,  Prov.  xxiv.  23;  ver,  34 

to  Hosea  v.  6;  verses  37,  38  to  Isaiah  Iv.  i,  Deut.  xviii.  15,  Isaiah 

xii.  3,  xliv.  3,  Joel  ii.  28 ;  ver.  42,  Deut.  xviii.  15,  Psalms  cxxxii.  11, 

Jerem.  xxiii.  5,  Micah  v.  2. 
Chap.  viii.  verses  i — 11  to  Levit.  xx.  10,  Deut.  xxii.  22,  xvii.  7  ;  ver. 

17  to  Deut.  xvii.  6,  xix.  15  ;  verses  31 — 59,  continuous  teaching  of 


i6i 

our  Blessed  Lord  referring  to  the  Old  Scriptures,  verses  33 — 36 ; 

verses  37 — 44  to  Isaiah  Ixiii.  16,  Ixiv.  8 ;  verses  52 — 59,  Zech.  i.  5, 

Exod.  iii.  14,  Isaiah  xliii.  13. 
Chap.  ix.  ver.  7  to  Nehem.  iii.  15. 
Chap.  X.  ver.    11  to   Isaiah  xl.  ri,  Ezek.  xxxiv.   12,  23,  xxxvii.  24, 

Zech.   xi,   16,    17;  ver.    16  to   Ezek.   xxxvii.   22;    ver.   17,   Isaiah 

liii.  7,  8,  12;  verses  34 — 36,  Psalms  Ixxxii.  6. 
Chap.  xi.  ver.  11  to  Deut.  xxxi.  16,  Dan.  xii.  2. 
Chap.  xii.  ver.  35  to  Jerem.  xiii.   16;   verses  48,  49  to  Deut.  xviii. 

19,  xviii.  18. 
Chap.  xiii.  ver.  18  to  Psalms  xii.  9. 
Chap.  xiv. 

Chap.  XV.  verses  24,  25,  to  Psalms  xxxv.  19,  Ixix.  4. 
Chap.  xvi.  ver.  21  to  Isaiah  xxvi.  17;  ver.  33  to  Isaiah  ix.  6. 
Chap.  xvii.  ver.  2  to  Dan.  vii.  14;    ver.   3   to    Isaiah   liii.  il;    ver. 

6  to  Psalms  xxii.  22;   ver.  12,  Psalms  cix.  8;   ver.  17  to  2  Sam. 

vii.  28,  Psalms  cxix.  142,  151. 
Chap,  xviii.  ver.  36  to  Dan.  ii.  14,  vii.  14. 
Chap.  xix.  ver.  9  to  Isaiah  liii.  7;  ver.  28  to  Psalms  Ixix.  21. 
Chap.  XX.  ver.  17  to  Psalms  xxii.  22. 

First,  then,  for  the  general  issue.  This  is  one  of  so  com- 
plete interlacing  and  interweaving  of  the  Old  Scriptures 
with  the  Gospels  as  of  itself  to  negative  any  proposal  for 
making  any  distinction  of  authority.  Next,  to  come  more 
particularly  to  the  test  proposed  for  establishing  distinction 
of  authority,  I  do  not  find  a  single  instance  in  which  our 
Blessed  Lord  has  affirmed  anything  about  His  teaching  in 
connection  with  the  Old  Scriptures  being  '  positive '  teach- 
ing in  so  many  words.  There  are,  indeed,  several  instances 
in  which  the  '  positiveness '  is  implied,  but  not  one  in  which 
it  is  stated  in  terms.  The  idea  of  our  Blessed  Lord,  so  to 
speak,  guarding  Himself  by  His  own  affirmation  that  He 
is  speaking  positively  carries  with  it  the  savour  of  a 
dangerous  familiarity  with  the  mystery  of  Christ,  tending 
powerfully  not  to  the  revealed,  but  to  the  human,  side 
of  it  only.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  immense  majority 
of  instances  there  is  only  the  teaching  just  as  it  is  described 
in  St.  Matthew  vii.  28-9:— 'And  it  came  to  pass,  when 
Jesus  had  ended  these  sayings,  the  people  were  astonished 
at    His   doctrine :    for    He   taught   them    as   one   having 

M 


1 62 

authority,  and  not  as  the  scribes  ; '  St.  John  vii.  46  :— '  The 
officers  answered,  Never  man  spake  like  this  man.'  The 
issue,  then,  here  is  that,  omitting  the  comparatively  few 
instances  of  implied  positiveness,  every  other  case  of  our 
Lord's  teaching  in  connection  with  the  Old  Scriptures 
is,  according  to  the  invention  or  theory  or  claim  of  '  Lux 
Mundi,'  matter  for  the  free  handling  of  the  literary  critic. 
The  fourth  head  is  to  state  what  appears  to  me,  as  the 
mover  of  the  resolution  or  motion  before  the  House,  to  be 
the  answer  of  the  Church  of  England  to  the  claim  made. 
The  resolution  is  as  follows  : — 

That  his  Grace  the  President  be  respectfully  requested  to  direct 
the  appointment  of  a  committee  of  this  House  to  consider  and  report 
upon  the  Preface  and  Vlllth  Essay  of  the  book  'Lux  Mundi,'  as 
alleged  to  contain  and  involve  dangerous  error. 

The  dangerous  error — over  and  above  that  of  the  division 
into  '  positive '  and  '  non-positive  '  teaching — alleged  to  be 
contained  and  involved  in  the  portions  of  the  book  above 
cited,  I  state  as  follows : 

(a)  The  error  of  irreverence  towards  Him,  perfect  God  and  perfect 
Man. 

{d)  The  error  of  tending  to  'beguile'  and  'corrupt'  men's  minds 
'  from  the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ'  (2  Cor.  xi.  3). 

(f)  The  error  of  being  contrary  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments. 

{(f)  The  error  of  being  contrary  to  the  authority  of  the  Church 
as  declared  by  the  Vlth  Ai'ticle  of  Religion. 

(a)  In  respect  of '  the  error  of  irreverence  towards  Him, 
perfect  God  and  perfect  Man.'  Let  me  first  say  that 
I  have  never  said,  written,  or  thought  that  the  irreverence 
was  of  the  intention.  I  have  all  along  considered  it,  and 
am  now  reviewing  it  only  as  it  is — that  is  to  say,  the 
necessary  and  unavoidable  issue  of  the  claim,  and  of  the 
means  to  be  employed  in  carrying  out  the  claim  above 
stated  and  considered.  '  God  is  in  heaven,  and  thou  upon 
earth :  therefore  let  thy  words  be  few '  (Eccles.  v.  2). 
I  will,  therefore,  only  set  forth  a  few  of  many  of  the  texts 
from  the  Holy  Gospels  declaring  the  eternal  mystery  of 


1 63 

Christ,  unapproachable  by  man  on  this  side  of  the 
grave : — 

Before  Abraham  was,  I  am. 
I  and  the  Father  are  One. 
He  who  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father. 

And  now,  O  Father,  glorify  Thou  Me  with  Thine  own  self,  with  the 
glory  which  I  had  with  Thee  before  the  world  was. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  one  text  in  St.  Mark's  Gospel: 
*  But  of  that  day  and  hour  knoweth  no  man — no,  not  the 
angels  which  are  in  heaven,  neither  the  Son,  but  the 
Father.'  All  these  alike,  the  last  included,  declare  the 
eternal  mystery  of  Christ,  the  Son — all  alike  are  wholly 
out  of  the  grasp  of  the  reasoning  power  of  man.  Now, 
then,  what  is  in  the  grasp  of  man's  reasoning  powers  ? 
This,  that  Christ  has  set  His  seal  upon  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Scriptures  as  upon  the  New.  May  we  then.  Bishops 
and  priests  of  His  Church,  stand  by  and  see  Him  repre- 
sented as  teaching  in  any  instance,  as  teaching  not  of  His 
own,  not  of  His  own  *  eternal '  and  '  incomprehensible  ' 
authority,  or,  what  is  more  unhappy  still,  may  we  stand 
by  and  see  Him  represented  as  citing  from,  or  referring 
to,  in  His  teaching,  things  known  to  Him  to  be  not  facts, 
but  myth,  or  allegory,  or  drama,  and  the  like,  and  yet 
employing  them  as  facts,  because,  being  infallible,  He 
knew  they  were  not  facts,  and  yet  employed  them  as 
if  they  were  facts .-'  Is  not  this  in  act,  however  it  may 
be  in  intention,  irreverent .-'  Is  it  not,  as  coming  from  the 
human  teacher,  to  allure  us,  and  encourage  irreverence 
in  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  ? 

{b)  The  error  of  tending  to  *  beguile '  and  *  corrupt  * 
men's  minds  '  from  the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ.'  There 
is  no  need  here  to  refer  to  any  other  than  St.  Paul  him- 
self to  explain  what  he  means  by  *  the  simplicity  that  is 
in  Christ,'  in  the  first  portion  of  the  same  verse.  '  For 
I  fear,  lest  by  any  means,  as  the  serpent  beguiled  Eve 
through  his  subtilty,  so  your  minds  should  be  corrupted 
from  the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ.'  In  the  temptation 
of  Eve  the  bait  of  the  Tempter  was  the  sufficiency  of 

M  2 


164 

Eve's  reasoning  power  to  justify  her  in  doubting,  and  finally 
disobeying,  God.  And  when  she  hesitated  he  offers  the 
bait  again  with  the  allurements  of  all  the  highest  know- 
ledge added  to  it — 'Ye  shall  not  surely  die,  for  God  doth 
know  that  in  the  day  ye  eat  thereof  ye  shall  be  as  gods, 
knowing  good  and  evil.'  Then  the  woman  gave  way,  the 
lust  of  the  flesh  and  the  eye  added  their  power,  and  the 
world  fell. 

{c)  The  error  of  being  contrary  to  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments.  The  claim 
cannot  be  reconciled  with  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments,  the  Preface  to  that 
Book,  the  order  of  daily  and  Sunday  prayer,  the  reading 
in  Church  the  Lessons  of  God  from  the  Old  and  New 
Scriptures,  the  questions  put  to  those  to  be  ordained 
deacons  respecting  '  all  the  Canonical  Scriptures  of  the 
Old  and  the  New  Testament,'  the  delivering  the  Bible  into 
the  hands  of  the  priest  after  his  ordination,  the  simple  and 
collective  language  throughout  employed  without  any  dis- 
tinction of  parts— Holy  Scripture,  the  Word,  the  Word  of 
God,  God's  Holy  Word,  true  and  lively  Word,  most  Holy 
Word  :  all  these  witness  to  one  and  the  same  thing,  that 
it  is  not  part  of  the  faithfulness  to  the  Church  of  England, 
sworn  and  pledged,  to  invent  distinctions  of  whatever 
kind,  respecting  the  Divine  authority  of  any  portion  of  the 
canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  Nor 
again,  by  way  of  qualifying  that  authority,  to  import  into 
them  the  character  of  myth,  allegory,  drama,  and  the  like, 

{d)  The  error  of  being  contrary  to  the  authority  of  the 
Church  as  declared  by  the  Sixth  Article  of  Religion.  The 
Sixth  Article  of  Religion  speaks  of  the  Authority  of  Holy 
Scripture — i.e.,  of  the  canonical  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment— without  distinction  or  difference  of  parts.  The 
claim,  therefore,  of  the  portions  of  the  '  Lux  Mundi  '  now 
under  consideration  cannot  be  reconciled  with  it. 

Mr.  Prolocutor,  let  me  pray  the  House  to  bear  with  me, 
I  believe  its  oldest  member,  when  I  say  what  is  the  first 
thing  that  this  House  is  here  for,  conjointly  with  the  Upper 


i65 

House.     It  is  for  the  defending  and  maintaining — it  carf- 
not    maintain    unless    it    defends    point    by   point — and, 
further,  for  the  extending,  in  every  way  open   to  it,  the 
area  of  the  doctrine  and  the  discipline  of  the  Church  of 
England,  upon  the  basis   of  the  faith  of  the   Church  of 
England.     There  is  no  such  extending,  either  at  home  or 
abroad,  unless   the   home  foundation  be  most  faithfully 
preserved    in    all    its    soundness.      We   are   not   here   to 
criticise   or   theorise   anew  upon    that   doctrine  and  dis- 
cipline as  it  stands  before  us  in  the  Prayer  Book  and  the 
Articles  of  the  Church  of  England.     If  we  were  we  should 
be   'blind    leaders    of  the    blind.'      We  are   not   here   to 
'  invent '  a  revised  faith  and  a  new  theology — to  '  invent  * 
these  on  the  ground  that  there  are  those  of  us  who  will  not 
receive  the  old  because  they  cannot  make  them  coincide 
with  the  science  of  the  day.      We  have  our  house  built 
upon    the   rock — the    Church  of   the  Apostles    and    first 
fathers  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  Church  of  England 
reformed  after  the  pattern  of  it ;  reformed — formed  again 
— upon  that  pattern.     To  faithfulness  to  that  Church  we 
are  all  sworn — the  Church  built  upon  the  foundation  of 
the  Apostles  and  Prophets,  Jesus  Christ  being  the  head 
corner-stone.     We  have  not  had  a  Revelation  of  the  truth 
of  God  given  us  in  order  to  our  recasting  it  from  time  by 
advice  of  the  '  literary  critic'     We  have  not  been  sworn 
and  ordained  to  the  priesthood   in  order  to  become  as 
those  of  whom  the  prophet  Jeremiah  (vi.  l6)  speaks  : — 
'  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Stand  ye  in  the  ways,  and  see,  and 
ask  for  the  old  paths,  where  is  the  good  way,  and  walk 
therein,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  for  your  souls,'  to  say,  '  We 
will  not  walk  therein.'     Surely  it  cannot  be  that  we  are 
going  to  say, '  We  will  not  walk  therein  ;  we  will  not  keep 
our  oath  ;   we  will  have  new  paths,  new  ways  of  man's 
inventing ;  it  is  in  new  paths  and  ways  only  that  we  can 
find  rest  for  our  souls ;  it  is  these  only  that  can  enable  us 
to  teach  and  guide  our  people  .-' '    If  it  be  so  with  us,  what 
is  it  with  those  who  say,  'We  will  not  have  the  Church  of 
England  to  guide  and  teach  us — we  will  henceforth  teach 


i66 

■the  Church  ? '  God  in  His  mercy  to  ourselves  and  to  our 
.people,  and  to  all  in  whose  name  we  speak,  God  in  His 
mercy  forbid  this  claim  to  find  acceptance.  But  we  may 
never  put  out  of  our  sight  that  we  have  our  own  work 
appointed  for  us,  not  to  shrink  from  but  to  do,  whatever 
sacrifice  this  may  demand  at  our  hands.  We  have  this  to 
do  under  grace  that  the  mercy  of  God  will  interpose  to 
help  and  save  us. 

■  There  are  two  ways  in  which  '  dangerous  error  '  may  be 
presented  before  the  Church.  There  is  the  writer  giving 
his  name ;  there  is  the  writer  anonymous.  I  do  not  con- 
cern myself  with  the  last.  I  call  it  unworthy  and  cowardly, 
especially  in  the  matter  of  the  faith,  to  write  anonymously. 
The  writer  who  writes  with  his  name  the  letter  I  am  going 
to  quote  represents  the  full  amount  and  issue  of  the  claim 
of  those  portions  of  the  Preface  and  VHIth  Essay  of  the 
book  '  Lux  Mundi '  with  which  we  are  concerned  ;  and 
which,  however  any  one  of  us  may  wish  it,  he  cannot  hide 
from  himself  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  his  concluding 
phantasy  of  peace  and  reconciliation  between  the  wor- 
shipper of  science  and  the  humble  receiver  of  the  Revela- 
tion of  God,  based  by  the  writer  upon  the  perpetual  over- 
throw of  the  last  before  the  successive  triumphs  of  the 
first  to  the  end  of  time.  What  I  have  to  pray  attention  to 
is  the  outspoken  statement  made  and  insisted  upon  in  the 
sentence  beginning  with  '  the  same '  and  ending  with 
•non-existent.'  I  thank  James  McCann,  Doctor  of 
Divinity,  for  telling  us  all  what  is  really  meant  by  the 
claim  now  before  the  House,  and  placing  this  before  us  in 
language  about  which  there  can  be  no  mistake  either  in 
respect  of  clear  meaning  or  of  authorship.  In  the  current 
number  of  the  '  Theological  Monthly,'  Dr.  McCann,  in  re- 
ferring to  the  conflict  between  science  and  religion,  says  : — 
It  is  a  cry  that  is  so  strong  and  so  persistent  as  to  startle  and 
perplex  many  earnest  Christians,  who,  believing  that  the  oft-repeated 
vociferation  must  have  in  it  some  truth,  ask  the  very  natural  ques- 
tion, '  If  Nature  be  the  work  of  God,  and  the  Bible  be  His  Word, 
how  can  there  be  any  conflict  between  the  two  ? ' 


16/ 

•  Scientists  have  done  much  more  than  elaborate  conjectures — they 
have  discovered  innumerable  and  startling  facts,  that  make  one 
pause  in  wonder,  wondering  how  such  things  can  be.  Every  branch 
of  science  abounds  in  marvels  that  almost  surpass  belief,  and  make 
Nature  a  sacred  thing.  These  facts  press  upon  us  the  question 
'  What  relation  have  they  to  Scripture,  and  how  do  they  affect  our 
belief  in  the  Divine  inspiration  of  the  Bible  ? '  In  answering  this  we 
must  again  distinguish  between  fact  and  the  interpretation  of  fact, 
between  Scripture  and  the  interpretation  of  Scripture.  The  same 
distinctions  must  be  applied  to  the  Word  of  God  that  are  applied  to 
the  work  of  God  ;  and  it  may  be  at  once  granted  that  if  any  demon- 
strated fact  in  Nature  be  contradictory  of  any  fact  in  revelation,  the 
latter  must  yield  its  ground,  and  revelation  in  that  instance  be  pro- 
nounced non-existent— that  is,  it  must  be  given  up  as  a  revelation, 
for  no  revelation  from  God  can  by  any  possibility  be  erroneous.  As 
naturalists  have  blundered  regarding  nature,  so  have  theologians 
blundered  regarding  Scripture ;  and  most  of  the  embittered  contro- 
versies about  Genesis  and  geology,  science  and  the  Bible,  have  their 
origin  in  these  mutual  blunders.  But  while  the  naturalist  will  insist 
on  fighting  with  the  newest  weapons  from  the  armoury  of  thought, 
he  equally  insists  that  the  theologian  shall  fight  with  the  oldest.  To 
this  the  latter  decidedly  objects,  and,  while  fully  acknowledging  the 
progress  of  science,  claims  for  exegesis  a  corresponding  advance. 
There  are  now  better  canons  adopted,  fuller  information  is  possessed, 
more  current  renderings  have  been  elicited,  so  that  many  old  inter- 
pretations have  to  be  abandoned.  Biblical  criticism,  consequently, 
like  nature  criticism,  contains  fluctuating  elements.  It  would 
manifestly  be  a  waste  of  time  to  contrast  these  varying  quantities 
with  each  other,  or  attempt  by  their  means  either  attack  or  defence. 
This,  however,  is  the  very  thing  that  is  being  done  by  men  on  both 
sides.  The  sceptic  naturalist  brings  forward  his  very  latest  theory, 
and  asserts  the  untruthfulness  of  the  Bible  because  it  seems  out 
of  harmony  with  it.  The  Christian,  bowing  to  the  authoritative 
assertion,  believes  this,  and  attempts  to  adjust  the  statements  of  his 
Bible  to  this  new  guess,  and  most  probably  fails,  as  he  ought  to  do. 
Let  each  branch  of  study  grow  in  its  own  way,  doing  its  own  work, 
unhindered  by  interference  from  the  other,  and  the  eventual  result 
will  be  a  mutual  embrace  ;  and  nowhere  will  it  be  more  cordial  than 
over  the  much-battered  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 

In  the  Word  of  God  the  term  'science'  is  found  only 
once,  I  Tim.  vi.  20,  21,  'O  Timothy,  keep  that  which  is 
committed  to  thy  trust,  avoiding  profane  and  vain  bab- 
blings, and  opposition  of  science  falsely  so  called,  which 
some   professing  have  erred   concerning  the   faith.'      So, 


i68 

again,  of  the  term  *  philosophy '  (Col.  ii.  8,  c.  Acts  xvii. 
1 8):  'Beware  lest  any  man  spoil  you  through  philosophy 
and  vain  deceit,  after  the  tradition  of  men,  after  the  rudi- 
ments of  the  world,  and  not  after  Christ.'  Bishops  and 
priests  of  the  Church  of  England  in  this  House,  God  help 
us  all  never  to  forget  the  warning  of  our  Saviour  and  our 
Judge — '  When  the  Son  of  Man  cometh,  shall  He  find 
faith  upon  the  earth  } '  Mr.  Prolocutor,  I  move  the  resolu- 
tion which  has  been  read  to  the  House. 


A  LETTER  TO   HIS  GRACE  THE  ARCH- 
BISHOP  OF    CANTERBURY, 
June,  i8gi. 


My  Lord  Archbishop, 

I  allow  myself  in  this,  the  greatest  of  the  many  dis- 
tresses of  our  time,  to  attempt  to  place  in  few  words  before 
your  Grace  the  proposal  of  the  book  "Lux  Mundi," 
that  there  be  adopted  amongst  us  a  new  manner  of  the  Faith 
in  Christ.  That  is  to  say,  a  Faith  which,  for  the  Old 
Scriptures,  excludes  the  Divine  Authority  of  portions  of 
the  Old  Scriptures  ;  and,  for  the  New  Scriptures,  excludes 
the  eternal  knowledge  of  jESUS  Christ. 

In  this  Paper  I  have  not  travelled  outside  "  Lux 
MUNDl."  I  have  no  sufficient  knowledge  of  other  writings 
of  the  same  category,  but  of  a  different  manner.  But 
I  would  submit  for  consideration  that  if  the  more  refined 
and  enticing  aspects  of  the  present  attempt  require  to  be 
spoken  of,  as  I  have  had  to  speak  here  and  elsewhere  of 
"Lux  Mundi,"  a  fortiori  the  unrefined,  coarse,  and,  so  to 
speak,  brutal  character  of  other  attempts  is,  of  itself,  con- 
demned as  unworthy  of  notice. 

I  am, 

In  all  respect  and  obedience, 

Your  Grace's  humble  and  obedient  Servant, 

GEORGE   ANTHONY    DENISON. 

fune,  1 89 1. 


ANALYSIS. 

I.  We  are  asked,  here  in  England,  at  the  close  of  nine- 
teenth century  of  Redemption,  to  adopt,  for  ourselves  and 
for  our  children,  a  new  manner  of  the  Faith  in  CHRIST,  in 


170 

respect  of  the  Divine  Authority  of  portions  of  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  Old  Testament,  and  in  respect  of  the  Eternal 
Knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  are  told  that  the  Old 
Faith  "  needs  disincumbering,  reinterpreting,  explaining." 
(Preface  to  all  Editions  of"  Lux  MUNDI,"  p.  i.) 

2.  We  are  invited  to  concur  in  "  an  attempt  to  put  the 
Catholic  Faith  into  its  right  relation  to  modern  intellectual 
and  moral  problems."  Not  to  put  modern  intellectual  and 
moral  problems  into  their  right  relation  to  the  Catholic 
Faith,  but  vice  versa".  The  Catholic  Faith  then  is  the 
subject-matter  with  which  the  reasoning  power  is  now  to 
deal  afresh  upon  its  own  authority. 

3.  We  are  invited  to  do  this  in  the  name  of  "  intellectual 
and  moral  freedom."  For  the  meaning  of  the  word 
"  freedom  "  as  here  used,  see  Par  7. 

4.  We  are  invited  further  to  do  this  by  way  of  "  succour 
to  a  distressed  faith '',"  "  by  endeavouring  to  bring  the 
Christian  Creed  into  its  right  relation "  to  the  modern 
growth  of  knowledge,  scientific,  historical,  critical ;  and  to 
modern  problem.s  of  politics  and  ethics."  Why  a  distressed 
faith }  Primarily,  because  required  by  the  Church  ^  to 
accept  the  Divine  Authority  of  every  portion  of  the  Old 
Scripture.  We  are  invited  to  find  relief  from  the  "  distress  " 
in  discarding  portions  of  the  Old  Scriptures  in  order  to  the 
enabling  us  to  accept  what  remains  of  them  ;  in  a  word,  to 
put  aside  the  Bible  of  the  Church  Catholic,  and  to  take  up 
the  Bible  of  the  New  Criticism. 

5.  We  are  asked  to  accept  the  proposal  for  "a  readjust- 

'  All  Editions.  Preface,  p.  I.  (An  explanation  is  appended,  Note  I  ; 
Preface  to  Tenth  Edition,  p.  ii.)  The  explanation  there  offered  amounts 
to  the  same  thing  with  the  thing  explained,  conversely  put.  Faith  adjusted 
to  Reason  is  one  and  the  same  thing  with  Reason  prescribing  to  Faith. 
It  is  then  no  explanation  at  all.  The  substance  of  the  thing  complained 
of  remains  just  where  it  was. 

The  two  lines  in  italics  (par.  2)  are  the  basis  of  "LuxMundi."  See 
par.  12  of  this  Paper,  pp.  7,  8,  where  the  "explanation"  above  referred 
to  is  cited. 

''  Preface  to  Tenth  Edition,  p.  11.     See  p.  7,  par.  12. 

•^  See  below,  par.  12,  p.  8. 

"^   Vide  Article  VI.  of  the  Articles  of  Religion. 


171 

ment,  or  fresh  correlation,  of  the  things  of  faith  and  the 
things  of  knowledge  ^" 

6.  We  are  encouraged  to  intrude  ourselves  into  the 
Province  of  the  Divine  Nature  ;  to  assume  a  knowledge 
which  man  cannot  have  here — a  knowledge  of  the  Divine 
purposes  beyond  and  beside  what  is  revealed  to  us  in 
"Holy  Scripture;"  and  thereupon  to  found  and  fashion 
anew  our  old  belief.  To  pronounce  upon  the  strength  of 
such  "knowledge"  that  the  knowledge  of  jESUS  Christ 
was  limited,  not  eternal. 

.  7.  We  are  told  that  we  have,  in  arriving  at  these  con- 
clusions, to  submit  ourselves  to  man's  wisdom,  learning, 
research,  science.  That  is  to  say  :  to  give  up  ourselves  to 
be  guided  by  "  the  Literary  Critic,"  the  Critic  of  "  the  New 
Criticism  "  for  the  time  being  :  to  give  up  ourselves  to  his 
guidance  in  respect  of  what  portions  of  the  Old  Scriptures 
are  to  be  received,  and  what  not  to  be  received.  In  other 
words,  that  it  is  of  man's  "  intellectual  and  moral  freedom  " 
to  believe  in,  or  not  to  believe  in,  so  much  of  the  Old 
Scriptures  as  the  Literary  Critic  for  the  time  being,  and  of 
all  succeeding  generations  to  the  end  of  time,  may  allow 
him  to  accept,  or  may  require  him  to  reject,  as  not  being 
of  Divine  Authority. 

8.  Thus  it  is  proposed  to  us  to  unite  in  inaugurating 
a  perpetual  flux  of  what  is,  nevertheless,  to  be  still  called 
by  the  name  of  the  Catholic  Faith  ;  but  is  a  perpetual  dis- 
integration, increasing  as  time  goes  on,  of  the  elements 
of  the  Catholic  Faith.  For  no  generation  of  the  New 
Criticism  has  any  control,  positive  or  negative,  over  a  like 
claim  of  the  generation  next  in  succession.  It  has  its  evil 
example  ;  but  without  its  authority,  such  as  that  authority 
is,  after  the  manner  of  other  "  Sciences."  It  has  no  bind- 
ing power  over  the  generations  that  come  after.  The 
authority  of  one  generation  of  "  the  Literary  Criticism  " 
may,  upon  its  own  assumption,  accept,  reject,  amend, 
substitute  an  account  of  what  is  to  be  received  or  what 

e  Preface  to  Tenth  Edition,  p.  12. 


172 

is  not  to  be  received,  in  the  place  of  what  a  previous 
generation  of  it  may  have  in  like  manner  insisted  upon  ; 
and  this,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  unto  the  end  of  time: 
in  virtue  of  what  are  called  new  discoveries,  and  new 
corresponding  insight  into  the  Revelation  of  GOD  by 
man's  reasoning  power.  Faith  disappears  step  by  step  ; 
Rationalism,  in  one  or  other  of  its  forms,  comes  into  its 
place  ;  and  herein  we  seem  to  recognise  the  answer  to 
our  Lord's  question,  "When  CllRlST  cometh,  shall  He 
find  faith  upon  the  earth  ? " 

9.  If  it  be  replied  to  all  this  assumption  and  require- 
ment, as  the  simple  and  all  sufficient  answer,  that  our 
Blessed  Lord  jESUS  CHRIST  has  in  His  Gospel  set  His 
seal  upon  all  the  old  Scriptures,  making  them  His  own; 
that  He  has  so  cared  for  man's  infirmities,  and,  more  than 
this,  has  so  warned  against  man's  presumption,  as  to  have 
twice  repeated \.h\s  setting  of  His  seal  after  He  rose  from  the 
dead,  and  was  about  to  return  to  "the  Glory  which  He 
had  with  the  Father  before  the  World  was"  (St.  Luke 
xxiv.  25,  26,  27,  and  44) — we  are,  nevertheless,  informed 
by  "Lux  MuNDi"  that  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus 
was  "a  limited  knowledge,"  after  the  nature  of  a  man's 
knowledge  in  this  world  (see  Essay  VHI.,  Ed.  X.,  pp. 
360-1). 

10.  The  most  comprehensive  form  of  Rationalism  is 
the  saying  of  the  fool,  "  There  is  no  GOD."  There  is  a  par- 
ticular and  subordinate  form,  more  subtle,  quite  as  danger- 
ous, if  not  more  so.  It  is  the  form  of  Rationalism  presented 
in  "Lux  MUNDI."  This  form  declares:  (i)  I  believe 
that  God  is ;  (2)  That  there  are  Three  Persons,  one  God  ; 
(3)  That  God  speaks  to  man  by  His  "Holy  Scripture:" 
But  (4)  that  what  is  "  Holy  Scripture,"  and  what  is  not 
"  Holy  Scripture,"  is  for  man's  reasoning  power  to  decide 
from  time  to  time  unto  the  end  of  time. 

■  II.  This,  conjoined  with  the  assumption — it  is  nothing 
hnt  assumption — of  the  "limited  knowledge"  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  jESUS  Christ,  is  the  Rationalism  of  "  Lux 
MUNDI."     The    Rationalism    seductive.     The  two   forms 


^7i 

of  Rationalism  present  themselves  under  two  aspects. 
On  the  one  hand,  there  is  the  Rationalism  of  the  learned 
man  resting  in  his  learning,  or  what  he  calls  his  learning: 
On  the  other  is  the  Rationalism  of  the  plain  man  seduced 
by  the  learned  man  into  thinking  that  he  is  himself  also 
a  judge  of  "  Holy  Scripture  ;  "  and  in  this  way  the  millions 
of  men  fall  away  from  their  one  hope,  the  simplicity  of 
the  One  Faith  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  in  His  Holy  Scrip- 
ture as  delivered  to  man  by  the  undivided  Church  under 
guidance  of  The  Spirit.  Of  all  things  cruel  as  done  by 
man  to  man  there  is  nothing  so  cruel  as  that  which  is 
done  by  the  learning  which  ignores  the  Divine  Authority 
of  Holy  Scripture,  of  portions  of  it,  or  of  the  whole  of  it ; 
to  the  harm  and  loss  of  the  souls  of  the  learned  few,  and 
the  unlearned  millions  of  men. 

12.  In  Note  I,  p.  II,  Preface  to  Tenth  Edition,  we  read 
as  follows : — 

"  By  the  phrase  '  to  attempt  to  put  the  Catholic  Faith  into  its  right 
relation  to  modern  intellectual  and  moral  problems'  (Preface  to  Fh-st 
Edition;  it  was  not  by  any  means  intended  to  suggest  that  the  modern 
problems,  or  the  modern  sciences,  were  the  things  of  the  first  import- 
ance, and  the  faith  only  secondary.  What  was  intended  was  that, 
as  holding  the  Faith,  we  needed,  as  the  Church  has  often  needed' 
to  bring  that  with  which  we  are  ourselves  identified  into  relation  to 
the  claims,  intellectual  and  practical,  made  upon  us  from  outside." 

This  is  no  "  explanation."  It  is  nothing  but  a  repetition, 
leaving  out  the  word  "  right  "  before  "  relation,"  and  insert- 
ing the  words  "  the  claims  intellectual  and  practical  made 
upon  us  from  outside  "  in  the  room  of  "  modern  intellectual 
and  moral  problems." 

Again,  "  as  holding  the  Faith  "—what  Faith  .?  Certainly 
not  the  Faith  of  the  Church  Catholic  in  the  Divine 
Authority  of  all  the  old  Scriptures  ! 

Again,  what  is  the  precise  meaning  of  "into  its  right 
relation  to,"  or,  "  into  relation  to  ?  " 

The  two  expressions  obviously  mean  the  same  thing. 
But  what  is  that  same  thing?  We  are  not  told.  No 
doubt  we  can  gather  it ;  but  not  to  any  relief  from  our 
distress. 


174 

13.  In  sum  then,  we  are  asked  by  "Lux  MUNDI  "  to 
believe  that  the  only  safe  guide  in  respect  of  portions 
of  the  Old  Scriptures,  whether  they  be,  or  be  not,  of 
Divine  Authority ;  and  in  respect  of  the  knowledge  of 
Jesus  Christ  whether  it  were  eternal,  or  limited,  is  to 
be  found  in  the  conclusions  of  the  Literary  Critic  of 
the  New  Criticism  for  the  time  being. 

14.  It  has  not  been  possible  in  this  brief  analysis  to 
include  dissection  of  the  reasonings  of  the  Editor  of  "  Lux 
MUNDI"  upon  Revelation  and  Inspiration,  Essay  VIII., 

PP-  337—362. 

If  I  were  pleading  my  cause  before  a  Court  of  Enquiry 
in  Convocation,  which  has  not  been  allowed  to  mc,  I 
should  be  prepared  to  show  : 

1.  That  it  is  difficult,  even  for  the  few  among  men, 
to  discern  what  the  Editor  affirms  and  what  he  denies  ; 
and  that  this  is  a  good  ground  for  not  attaching 
weight  to  his  reasoning,  however  dogmatic  in  its 
character. 

2.  That,  though  there  be  herein  a  refuge  for  the 
few,  all  that  remains  for  the  millions  is  to  have  doubts 
suggested  about  the  Divine  Authority  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, and  the  eternal  knowledge  of  our  LORD  and 
Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  which  they  have  no  answer 
to  for  themselves,  and  no  living  voice  of  the  Church 
to  enable  them  to  put  the  doubts  away. 

G.   A.   DENISON. 
July,  1 89 1. 


DECLARATION   ON   THE    TRUTH   OF 

HOLY    SCRIPTURE. 

December  i6,  i8gi. 


1.  It  must  be  evident  to  thoughtful  persons  that  there 
are  now  current  certain  impressions  that  Holy  Scripture 
has  been  discovered  not  to  be  worthy  of  unquestioning 
beh'ef;  and  the  faith  of  many  Christian  people  is  thereby 
unsettled. 

2.  These  impressions  are  manifestly  a  dishonour  to  God, 
as  discrediting  His  Faithfulness  and  Truth  ;  and  are  full 
of  peril  to  the  eternal  life  of  those  affected  by  them, 
seeing  that  they  undermine  all  faith  in  the  mystery  of 
Christ,  and,  indeed,  in  the  supernatural  itself. 

3.  And  although  such  impressions  might  appear  to 
originate  in  various  learned  speculations  in  Theological 
and  Physical  Science,  yet  they  are  in  great  measure 
derived  immediately  from  the  popular  literature  of  the 
day,  and  therefore,  no  sustained  argument  can  reach 
the  mass  of  those  affected  by  them ;  even  if  it  were 
true  (which  it  is  not)  that  the  tribunal  of  human  reason, 
to  which  such  argument  must  be  submitted,  had  juris- 
diction and  competency  to  deliver  judgment  on  the 
authority  of  the  Holy  Bible. 

4.  It  is,  moreover,  evident  that  the  effects  of  these 
speculations  survive,  and  accumulate,  to  the  general  lower- 
ing of  the  popular  estimation  of  the  Holy  Bible  ;  though 
individual  speculations  may  have  but  a  transitory  in- 
fluence, or  even  be  utterly  refuted  on  their  own  ground. 

5.  The  synods  of  the  Church  have  not  yet  spoken  with 


176 

authority  to  guide  us  in  matters  of  such  grave  import- 
ance ;  but  it  cannot  be  right  in  the  sight  of  God  that 
where  His  Honour  is  so  directly  assailed,  and  the  sal- 
vation of  His  people  so  seriously  hindered,  the  whole 
matter  should  be  allowed  to  drift  ;  and  that  only  isolated 
voices  should  be  raised  here  and  there  in  the  Church, 
in  defence  of  the  Truth  of  God's  Word. 

6.  Under  these  circumstances,  we,  the  undersigned, 
messengers,  watchmen,  and  stewards  of  the  Lord,  who 
have  received  the  Holy  Ghost  to  be  faithful  dispensers 
of  the  Word  of  God,  being  sorely  distressed  at  these 
things,  and  deeply  feeling  the  burden  and  shame  of  sitting 
still,  can  no  longer  forbear — 

(i)  To  deliver  our  joint  testimony  herein  before 
God  ;  and 

(2)  To  attempt,  by  the  only  united  action  in  our 
power,  to  settle  the  minds  of  those  to  whom  our 
testimony  may  seem  to  be  of  value,  in  a  good  and 
comfortable  reliance  on  the  absolute  Truth  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures. 

7.  We  therefore  solemnly  profess  and  declare  our  un- 
feigned belief  in  all  the  Canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments,  as  handed  down  to  us  by  the 
undivided  Church  in  the  original  languages.  We  believe 
that  they  are  inspired  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  that  they  arc 
what  they  profess  to  be  ;  that  they  mean  what  they  say  ; 
and  that  they  declare  incontrovertibly  the  actual  historical 
truth  in  all  records,  both  of  past  events,  and  of  the 
delivery  of  predictions  to  be  thereafter  fulfilled. 

8.  We  believe  these  Scriptures  because  they  have  the 
authority  of  Divine  Revelation  ;  and  wholly  indepen- 
dently of  our  own,  or  of  any  human,  approval  of  the 
probability  or  possibility  of  their  subject-matter;  and 
wholly  independently  of  our  own,  or  of  any  human  and 
finite,  comprehension  thereof. 

9.  And  we  believe  that  any  judgment,  either  for  or 
against  them,  formed  on  the  ground  of  such  approval  or 


177 

comprehension,    or    of  the   want    thereof,    is    inapplicable 
to  matter  of  Divine  revelation. 

10.  And  we  believe  the  Holy  Scriptures  to  have  this 
Divine  authority,  on  the  testimony  of  the  Universal 
Church,  the  Spouse  and  Body  of  Christ,  the  Witness 
and  Keeper  of  Holy  Writ.  So  that  no  opinion  of  the  fact 
or  form  of  Divine  Revelation,  grounded  on  literary  cri- 
ticism of  the  Scriptures  themselves,  can  be  admitted  to 
interfere  with  the  Traditionary  Testimony  of  the  Church, 
when  that  has  been  once  ascertained  and  verified  by 
appeal  to  antiquity. 

11.  It  is  far  from  our  purpose  to  undervalue  or  depre- 
cate the  employment  of  the  highest  powers  of  the  human 
intellect,  when  sanctified  through  prayer,  in  diligent  and 
reverent  searching  the  Scriptures,  and  in  such  studies 
as  help  to  the  knowledge  of  the  same ;  provided  that  the 
object  be  the  meaning  of  the  living  Oracles,  and  not  their 
genuineness  or  their  authenticity.  And  while  we  believe 
that  the  seal  of  The  Spirit  of  Truth  is  set  to  all  the 
Canonical  Scriptures  as  the  Truth  of  the  Living  God, 
we  especially  repudiate  and  abhor  all  suggestions  of 
fallibility  in  the  Person  of  our  Blessed  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
in  respect  of  His  own  use  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
Testament. 

12.  We  earnestly  pray  that  the  clergy  and  laity  of 
the  Church  of  England  may  never  acquiesce  in  rejecting 
any  portions  of  the  One  Volume  of  God's  Revelation, 
as  hard  sayings,  causing  stumbling  ;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
may  hold  fast  their  confidence  in  the  Faithfulness  of  God, 
Who  will  not  suffer  us  to  be  deceived  in  humbly  believing 
that  to  which  He  hath  set  His  Seal ;  and  may  wait 
patiently,  knowing  only  in  part,  for  the  time  when  we 
shall  know  even  as  we  are  known,  and  shall  be  filled  unto 
all  the  fulness  of  God. 


EDWARD  MEYRICK  GOUL- 
BURN,  D.D.,  D.C.L.,  Some- 
time Dean  of  Norwich. 

GEORGE  ANTHONY  DENISON, 

Archdeacon  of  Taunton. 


BERDMORE  COMPTON,  formerly 
Vicar  of  All  Saints',  Margaret 
Street. 

U.  F.  SADLER,  Prebendary  of 
^VelIs. 


N 


1/8 


T.   T.   CARTER,    Hon.    Canon    of 

Christ  Church. 
J.  L.  READlNCi,  Bishop -Suffragan. 
IIINUS-HOWELL,  Rector  of  Pray- 
ton,   Rural    Dean,   Hon.    Canon 
of  Norwich,  and  Proctor  in  Con- 
vocation. 
ROBERT  GREGORY,  Dean  of  St. 

Paul's. 
CANON  WILLIAM  COOKE. 
R.    W.   RANDALL,    Vicar   of  All 
Saints',  Clifton,  Hon.  Canon  of 
Bristol. 
T.  L.  CLAUGHTON,   late  Bishop 

of  St.  Albans. 
R.  PAYNE-SMITH,   Dean  of  Can- 
terbury. 
F.   H.    LEICE.STER,   Suffragan  of 

Peterborough. 
WILLIAM   RALPH  CHURTON, 

Canon  of  St.  Albans. 
H.   \V.   WEB13-PEPLOE,  Vicar  of 
St.      Paul's,     Onslow     Sciuare, 
London. 
ERNALD    LANE,    Archdeacon   of 

Stoke-upon-Trent. 
WILLIAM     BUTLER,     Dean     of 

Lincoln. 
H.  DONALD  W.  SPENCE,  Dean 

of  Gloucester. 
THOMAS    E.    ESPIN,   D.D.,  Pro- 
locutor of  the   Northern  Convo- 
cation, Chancellor  of  the  Dioceses 
of  Chester  and  Liverpool,  Rector 
of  Walsingham. 
BENJAMIN    J.    CLARKE,    Arch- 
deacon of  Liverpool. 
B.  M.  COWIE,  Dean  of  Exeter. 


ARTHUR  DOUGLAS  WAGNER, 

Vicar  of  St.  Paul's,  Brighton. 
HENRY  R.  NEVILL,  Archdeacon 

of  Norfolk,  Canon  of  Norwich. 
FREDERICK     MEYRICK,    Non- 
residentiary  Canon  of  Lincoln. 
J.   W.   MARSHALL,  Vicar  of  St. 

John,  Blackheath. 
RICHARD  T.  WEST,  Vicar  of  St. 

Mary  Magdalene,  Paddington. 
W.   H.    HUTCHINGS,    Rector  of 
Kirby     Misperton,     and     Rural 
Dean  of  Malton. 
GEORGE    PREVOST,     Rector    of 
Stinchcombe,  late  Archdeacon  of 
Gloucester. 
EDWARD    MILLER,   late    Rector 

of  Bucknill. 
JOSEPH  H.  STEPHENSON,  Pre- 
bendary and  Treasurer  of  Wells. 
RICHARD    C.     KIRKPATRICK, 
Vicar  of  St.  Augustine,  Kilbum. 
W.    CLAVELL    INGRAM,    Hon. 

Canon  of  Peterborough. 
CHARLES     STEPHEN     GRUE- 
BER,  Vicar  of  Hambridge. 
I    K.  B.    PORT  MAN,   late   Rector   of 
Staple  Fitzpaino. 
W.  H.  ASKWITH,  R.D.,  Vicar  of 

St.  Mary's,  Taunton. 
EDMUND     FIELD,     Fellow    and 
Senior  Chaplain  of  St.  Nicholas 
College. 
E.     EARDLEY     ^^TLMO^,     Pre- 
bendary of  Wells. 
W.  F.   HOBSON. 
MICHAEL  ROSENTHAL. 


APPENDIX    IV. 


THE    NEW    CRITICISM. 

A    Visitation   Charge,  April  26,  i8g2. 

Brethren  in  Christ, 

I  have  to  speak  to  you  to-day  under  circumstances  of 
special  anxiety  and  distress. 

There  are  not  a  few  things  of  great  concern  to  the 
Church  upon  which  I  should  have  been  ready  to  speak, 
and  to  take  counsel  with  you.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is 
one  thing,  superseding  every  other,  which  has  filled  my 
heart  and  mind  for  the  last  two  years  and  a  half;  and  has 
constrained  me  to  put  all  other  aside  :  so  that  I  have  not 
been  able  to  see  my  way  to  give  that  consideration  to  the 
other  things  referred  to,  which  would  have  prepared  me  to 
give  you  my  judgment  upon  them,  as  otherwise  I  should 
have  been  able  to  do. 

I  look  to  a  first  principle  committed  in  their  first  ordina- 
tion to  the  keeping  and  the  teaching  of  bishops,  priests, 
deacons  of  the  Church  of  England  in  their  care  for  the 
people  of  Christ — I  mean  "  unfeigned  behef  in  all  the 
canonical  Scriptures." 

"  The  Ordering  of  Deacons."  The  Bishop  :  Do  you  un- 
feignedly  believe  all  the  canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testament  ? — Answer  :  I  do  believe  them. 

I  look  to  all  that  has  been  done  and  is  doing,  and  is  at 
work  among  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  in  England, 
as  elsewhere,  day  by  day,  to  sap  the  foundation  of  that 
belief;  and  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  room  for  con- 
sideration of  questions,  of  however  grave  importance  to 
the  Church,  which  are,  nevertheless,  wholly  subordinate 

N  2 


i8o 

questions.  To  find  such  room  seems  to  me  very  like  the 
being  very  busy  when  building  a  house,  about  the  roof  of 
the  house,  and  making  it  wind  and  water-tight,  while 
hands  below  are  even  more  busy  in  pulling  out  the  foun- 
dations, beginning  with  the  foundation-stone. 

The  subject-matter  to  which  I  confine  myself  to-day 
here,  and  at  the  other  places  of  my  visitation,  is  (i)  the 
teaching  of  the  New  Criticism  concerning  Books  and  por- 
tions of  Books  of  the  Old  Scriptures  ;  (2)  the  teaching  of 
the  New  Criticism  in  respect  of  the  self-limitation  of  our 
Lord's  knowledge  when  upon  earth  ;  and  after  as  before 
His  Resurrection,  in  respect  of  His  knowledge  of  the  Old 
Scriptures.  One  would  have  thought,  a  priori,  that  a 
moment's  consideration  would  have  sufficed  to  show  the 
New,  or  Higher  Critic,  upon  his  own  rule  even  of  the 
majesty  of  human  reason,  that  such  assumption  is  an 
absurdity,  and  worse  than  an  absurdity.  I  might  safely 
use  a  much  stronger  word. 

A  Book,  every  page  of  which  is  stamped  with  unfathom- 
able mysteries,  and  is  sealed  with  the  seal  of  God  ;  a  Book 
containing  things  which  even  "  the  Angels  desire  to  look 
into"  (i  St.  Peter  i.  12)  is  to  be  handed  over  to  every 
man  to  say  what  it  pleases  him  to  say  upon  it.  It  is  an 
evil  claim  for  the  learned  few.  It  is  a  miserable  claim  for 
the  millions  of  men,  miserable  in  its  profound  cruelty, 
drawing  away  the  life-blood  of  their  hope,  comfort,  peace 
here  ;  giving  them  nothing  in  their  room  ;  having  nothing 
to  give.  Truly  it  may  be  said  that  the  pride  of  human 
reason  and  the  lust  of  human  appetite  rise  in  rebellion 
against  what  it  is  not  within  the  province  of  the  first  to 
comprehend,  nor  of  the  second  to  find  in  the  rebellion  any- 
thing wherewith  to  replace  lost  comfort,  hope,  and  peace. 
The  same  answer  extends  to  the  particular  objections  to 
portions  of  Books  advanced  by  the  New  Critic.  It  is  not 
for  man  to  discuss  what  parts  of  the  Bible  as  delivered  by 
the  Church  Catholic,  under  guidance  of  the  Spirit,  are,  or 
are  not,  of  God. 

But    all    this    notwithstanding,    "the    New    or    Higher 


I8l 

Criticism  "  does  claim  to  deal  with  Holy  Scripture  as  it 
would  deal  with  any  other  "  literature  ;  "  and  proceeds  to 
part  and  parcel  out  the  Old  Scriptures  into  what  is  to,  or 
may,  be  accepted  as  of  Divine  Revelation,  and  what  may 
be  dismissed  as  not  required  to  be  so  accepted. 

To  this  it  is  replied  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  in 
His  Gospels,  before  and  after  His  Resurrection  alike  (St. 
Luke  xxiv.  25-6-7,  44-8),  referred  to,  or  cited  from,  the 
Old  Scriptures  in  more  than  520  places  of  His  teaching. 
The  rejoinder  of  the  New,  or  Higher,  Critic  is  that  our 
Lord's  knowledge  of  the  Old  Scriptures  was  a  "self- 
limited  knowledge."  This  was  indeed  the  only  resort  left 
to  the  New,  or  Higher,  Critic,  in  defending  and  maintain- 
ing his  position  in  respect  of  the  Old  Scriptures  ;  and  as 
such  he  does  not  hesitate  to  cling  to  it  with  all  the 
tenacity  of  the  Neologist  of  our,  as  of  all  other  time. 

The  New  Critic,  having  thus  laid  his  foundation  on  his 
entire  liberty  to  deal  with  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
Testament  as  he  would  deal  with  any  other  literature ; 
and  to  represent  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  in  respect  of 
the  Old  Scriptures  as  of  no  account  in  the  matter  between 
him  and  the  Church  of  England,  falls  back  upon  the 
supremacy  of  the  New,  or  Higher,  Critic  ;  and  is  driven  to 
the  assertion  that  our  Lord's  citation  from,  and  reference 
to,  the  Old  Scriptures  in  the  Gospel's  Teaching  has  no 
force  because  our  Lord's  knowledge  of  the  Old  Scriptures 
was  a  self-limited  knowledge. 

For  this  "  invention*"  of  a  "  limited  knowledge"  in  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  when  upon  earth,  and  other  like  "  in- 
ventions "  of  man,  well  defined  as  follows,  "  New  ways  of 
making  a  man  more  wise  and  happy  than  God  has  made 
him,"  let  me  say — though  I  shrink  from  having  to  state  it 
— that  "  self-limited  knowledge  "  in  our  Lord  carries  with 
it  this  inseparable  consequence.  It  is  terrible  to  have  to 
state  it,  but  it  has  to  be  done.  It  is  this,  that  our  Lord, 
knowing  that  He  had  so  self-limited  Himself,  has,  never- 
theless, employed  the  Old  Scriptures  in  His  teaching,  as 

*  Eccles.  vii.  29. 


IS2 

if  He  were  not  "  self- limited  " — employed  them  to  illus- 
trate and  to  enforce  His  teaching  when  He  had  Himself 
deprived  Himself  of  the  knowledge  whether  what  He  was 
citing  or  referring  to  was  truth  of  fact  or  not. 

It  is,  I  repeat,  terrible  to  be  forced  to  note  such  things  ; 
but,  as  it  is  my  duty  to  note  them,  my  duty  to  God,  to 
His  Church,  to  you,  to  myself,  I  note  them  and  leave  them 
with  as  few  words  as  I  may. 

I  am  speaking  to  my  brethren  the  clergy  and  church- 
wardens of  this  portion  of  the  Archdeaconry  of  Taunton 
and  others  of  them  here  present  ;  but  also  to  many  others, 
every  one  of  whom,  baptized  into  Christ,  has  it  in  charge 
to  keep  the  faith  as  he  has  received  it,  and  to  commend  it 
to  others  to  the  best  of  his  power.  It  is  only  a  repetition, 
in  another  form,  of  what  I  have  been  saying  everywhere 
for  the  last  two  years  and  a  half — the  main  points  of  it 
condensed  into  a  brief  space. 

Now,  if  it  be  said  that  this  is  a  position  rather  of  the 
Bishop  of  a  Diocese  than  of  one  of  his  Archdeacons,  I  am 
thankful  to  be  able  to  cite  and  plead  what  has  been  long 
before  the  Church — that  I  am  saying  no  more  than  what 
our  dear  Bishop  has  publicly  said  upon  this  matter  many 
times. 

I  am  thankful  to  be  able  to  restate  here  that  I  was 
enabled,  by  vote  of  our  Diocesan  Conference  of  1891,  to 
affirm  that  the  one  Basis  of"  the  Best  way  of  dealing  with 
Indifferentism  and  Scepticism  "  is  the  Divine  Integrity 
and  Authority  of  Holy  Scripture :  the  Old  Scriptures  as 
witnessed  to  by  our  Lord  in  His  Gospels.  The  Book  as 
delivered  to  man  by  the  undivided  Church  Catholic :  The 
Spirit  of  Truth  guiding  It  into  all  Truth,  for  all  time. 

Reason,  man's  greatest  earthly  gift,  may,  like  all  other 
gifts  bestowed  upon  him,  become  his  greatest  snare.  It 
may,  that  is,  become  unreason  ;  and,  in  respect  of  things 
Divine,  will  issue,  if  left  to  itself,  in  what  S.  John  calls 
it,  "  The  pride  of  life." 

It  may  and  will  win  many  proselytes  in  the  hands  of 
the  user,  and  find  much  honour  in  the  world  as  denoting 


i83 

much  acumen  and  intellectual  power.  Whether  it  can 
issue  in  the  form  it  has  adopted  for  itself  in  helping  men 
to  save  their  souls  is  another  question.  For  one,  I  need 
not  state  in  words  the  answer  I  must  give  to  that 
question. 

Call  to  mind  day  by  day,  dear  brethren  in  Christ,  what 
that  Book  is,  which  many  amongst  us  are  handling  so 
freely,  each  one  of  them  as  if  it  was  his  own  native  pro- 
duction, or  that  of  some  other  man. 

It  is  the  Book  of  God  speaking  to  man  by  man,  and 
as  delivered  to  all  men  by  the  Church  Catholic,  as  He 
sees  fit  in  His  Almighty  wisdom.  It  is  the  one  Book 
that  does  this.  It  is  the  Book  which  tells  us  of  all  the 
relations  of  God  to  man.  It  is  the  one  Book  that  does 
this.  It  is  the  Book  which  tells  us  of  all  the  relations 
of  man  to  God.     It  is  the  one  Book  that  does  this. 

May  God  the  Father,  the  Son,  the  Holy  Ghost,  warn 
us,  teach  us,  help  us,  guide  us  all,  guard  us  against  that 
deadliest  wile  of  the  Tempter,  "  The  pride  of  life."  All 
this  let  us  pray  for  ourselves  and  for  all,  watching  unto 
prayer,  praying,  confessing,  mourning  for  our  many  sins, 
hoping  for  everlasting  life,  giving  up  ourselves  in  body 
and  in  soul  to  Christ,  speaking  to  us  by  The  Spirit,  in 
His  own  Holy  Word — not  living  as  though  we  had  not 
yet  received  the  Truth,  but  have  alway  to  find  it  still 
for  ourselves  by  our  own  reasoning  power.  God  in  His 
mercy  in  Christ  keep  us  from  being  found,  when  Christ 
Cometh,  to  know  then  for  the  first  time  what  that  is 
which  Christ  meaneth  when  He  said,  "  When  the  Son  of 
Man  conieth,  shall  He  find  faith  upon  the  earth  ?  " 


APPENDIX    V. 


LUX    MUNDI. 

Six  Sermons  preached  in  Wells  Cathedral. 


SERMON    I. 

Preached  in  Wells  Cathedral,  Sunday,  May  to,  i8gi. 


DEUT.  xxix.  29. 

*'  The  secret  things  belong  tinto  the  Lord  our  God.  But  the  things 
that  are  Revealed  belong  unto  us,  and  to  our  children,  that  we 
may  do  all  the  words  of  this  Latv  "—and  St.  Matthew  xviii.  1 7— 
"  Tell  it  unto  the  Church." 

I  KNOW  well  that  I  shall  be  thought  to  say  to-day  what 
"the  world"  calls  "hard  things."  Let  me  say,  then,  in 
limine,  that  what  I  have  in  hand  to-day  is  to  do,  if  God 
permit,  what  I  can  against  Rationalism.  Rationalism  is 
largely  infecting  the  English  people,  within  the  Church 
and  without  it.  It  is  weakening  the  hold  of  the  Bible 
on  the  heart  and  mind.  I  know  nothing  so  unhappy, 
because  so  fatal  to  true  religion.  It  is  the  intrusion  of 
the  reasoning  power  of  the  finite  into  the  mystery  of  the 
infinite.  Shall  the  thing  formed  say,  in  his  discontent 
and  presumption,  to  Him  that  formed  it,  Why  hast  Thou 
made  me  thus?  Nay  but,  O  man,  who  art  thou  that 
replies  against  God  ?  (Rom.  ix.  20.)  But  my  quarrel  is 
not  with  the  Rationalist.  The  "hard  things"  of  the 
world's  judgment  are  not  for  him.  My  quarrel  is  with 
Rationalism.  I  have  sought  all  my  life  to  have  no 
quarrel  with  men,  however  much  I  must  needs  quarrel 
with  their  teaching.  Many  of  the  Rationalists  carry 
about  with  them  special  attractions  ;  but  it  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  special  attractions  of  men.  It  is  a  question  of 
The  Truth  of  The  Word  of  God,  as  delivered  to  the 
World  by  the  undivided  Church  guided  into  all  Truth 
by  The  Spirit.  The  '*  hard  things"  of  the  world's  lan- 
guage are  the  Truth  of  Holy  Scripture  by  the  voice  of 
the  Church.     If  I  believe  them  with  all  my  heart,  mind, 


i88 

and  strength,  I  may  not  shrink  from  saying  this.  Let 
us  take  note  here  in  what  places  Holy  Scripture  may  be 
said  more  particularly  to  define  and  characterise  Rational- 
ism. To  this  end  we  have  to  compare  carefully  the  places 
following  in  the  Old  and  the  New  Scripture  : — Genesis 
iii.  1—8;  Exodus  ii.  2—8;  Deut.  vi.  i6  ;  Numbers  xx. 
13;  Psalm  xcv.  8— 11  ;  St.  Luke  iv.  9—13  ;  i  St.  John 
ii.  16.  If  any  man  strive  to  give  any  other  account  of 
what  Rationalism  is,  I  have  this  only  to  say — 

Malim  cum  his  scire,  qiiam  tecum  nescire. 

We  are  told,  Genesis  iii.  22—24,  of  the  guard  of  the 
Cherubim,  and  the  flaming  sword  to  keep  the  way  of  the 
Tree  of  Life  in  the  garden  of  Eden.  God  vouchsafes  here 
to  tell  us  why;  to  give  some  account  of  a  portion  of  His 
Mysteries.  Let  us  not  presume,  but  be  humble  and  wait. 
See  Job  xxxiii.  13  ;  Rev.  xxii.  2. 

I.  The  history  of  what  is  called,  in  English,  "  Rational- 
ism," is  coeval  and  concurrent  with  the  history  of  this 
world.  Rationalism,  with  its  subtleties,  whisperings,  il- 
lusions, attractions  of  many  kinds,  its  ever  ready  gratifi- 
cation of  pride  of  heart  and  mind — in  one  word,  with  its 
temptations — is,  in  "  the  last  time  "  what  it  has  ever  been 
in  and  since  the  first  time  of  the  world,  the  most  seducing 
and  powerful  enemy  and  destroyer  of  souls  by  temptation 
of  the  devil.  Rationalism  is  irreconcilable  with  faith,  its 
essence  being  doubt  about  the  will  and  the  power  of 
Qod — aye,  sometimes  of  belief  in  the  being  of  God.  If 
it  does  not  issue  in  this,  it  goes  far  towards  issuing  in  it. 
It  has  nothing  to  offer  of  comfort  in  what  is  here,  or  of 
hope  of  what  shall  be  hereafter.  It  has  no  basis  to  stand 
upon,  as  against  the  Word  of  God,  but  conceit  of  itself ; 
of  its  own  power  and  value  for  amending  and  from  time 
to  time  re-editing  the  faith,  by  taking  away  from  it  part 
after  part,  element  after  element.  Add  to  this  conceit — 
what  is  indeed  separable  from  it — the  call  to  walk  by 
sight  and  not  by  faith,  and  you  have  the  summary  of 
Rationalism.     Rationalism  is  the  Sadduceeism  of  Chris- 


1 89 

tianity.  It  is  the  waters  of  Marah  :  the  bitter  source  and 
fountain  of  the  heresy  that  doubts  and  distrusts  the  Word 
of  God.  The  history  of  this  world — the  relations  of  God 
to  man,  the  duty  of  man  to  God— is  in  Holy  Scripture, 
in  the  Scripture  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments, 
bound  together  by  the  threefold  cord  of  faith,  hope,  and 
charity — the  threefold  cord  which  cannot  be  broken.  The 
history  of  this  world  ;  created  for  man  in  innocence,  in 
the  image  of  God  ;  of  the  world  fallen  by  the  yielding 
of  man,  for  whom  the  world  was  made,  to  the  temptation 
to  doubt  the  will  of  God,  with  the  other  two  temptations 
of  man,  the  lust  of  the  flesh  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes, 
coming  in  its  train,  and  making  him  ever  the  slave  of  the 
tempter;  the  history  of  the  world  fallen  in  man's  fall, 
redeemed  in  and  by  Christ  ;  of  man,  delivered  unto  the 
death  of  this  world,  redeemed  from  the  second  death  unto 
the  hope  of  heaven  by  the  death  of  Christ  on  the  cross  ; 
raised  again  unto  the  life  and  glory  and  equality  with  the 
angels  by  the  resurrection  of  Christ— all  this  is  laid  up  in 
Holy  Scripture,  and  nowhere  else.  Laid  up  in  the  Book 
of  God.  Man  may  not  lay  a  finger  upon  the  Book  of 
God,  except  to  take  it  all  into  his  hands,  his  heart,  and 
life.  First,  in  its  mystery,  which  is  outside  the  province, 
outside  the  power,  of  man  to  do  more  than  humbly  to 
receive.  Second,  in  its  command  and  teaching  of  obe- 
dience and  keeping  of  all  the  words  of  the  law  of  God, 
which  is  man's  "  reasonable  service." 

I  have  said  "  coeval  and  concurrent,"  because  though  we 
be  not  told  for  how  long  our  first  parents  abided  in  their 
innocence— and  all  that  is  told  us  of  the  presence  of  God 
with  man  in  the  Garden  of  Eden  is  contained,  with  the 
creation  of  woman,  in  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis — it  is 
the  first  thing  told  us  in  the  third  chapter,  how  it  came  to 
pass  that  our  first  parents  fell  away  from  the  grace  of  God. 
Man  fell,  and  "  in  Adam  all  die."  This  was  compassed 
through  Rationalism,  called  into  life  and  power  by  the 
temptation  of  the  devil.  It  was  doubt  entertained  and 
carried   out   into    action— doubt   of  the  will  and  of  thq 


190 

word  of  God.  "  Yea,  hath  God  said  ? "  The  woman 
hearkened  ;  her  trust  in  and  obedience  to  God  began  to 
shake  like  a  leaf  before  the  wind.  She  looked  upon  the 
tree ;  she  saw  that  the  tree  was  good  for  food,  and 
pleasant  to  the  eyes,  and  a  tree  to  be  desired  to  make 
one  wise.  The  tempter  had  said,  "  Ye  shall  not  surely 
die  ;  for  God  doth  know  that  in  the  day  yc  eat  thereof, 
then  your  eyes  shall  be  opened  ;  and  ye  shall  be  as  gods, 
knowing  good  and  evil."  The  door  was  opened  for  doubt 
in  God  ;  the  temptations  of  the  lust  of  the  flesh  and  the 
lust  of  the  eyes  came  in  at  the  fall  of  the  tempter.  "  And 
when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good  for  food,  and 
pleasant  to  the  eyes,  and  a  tree  to  be  dcsij-cd  to  make  one 
wise,  she  took  of  the  fruit  thereof,  and  did  cat  ;  and  gave 
also  to  her  husband  with  her,  and  he  did  eat.  And  the 
eyes  of  them  both  were  opened,  and  they  knew  that  they 
were  naked."  This  was  the  knowledge  they  had  attained 
to.  Here,  then,  closely  waiting  upon  the  beginning  of 
man's  earliest  history  is  Rationalism,  in  all  its  power 
unto  the  death  of  the  soul.  Our  first  parents  reasoned 
about  God,  about  His  word,  and  their  obedience  to  it ; 
and  they  fell  away,  with  all  their  children,  from  the  grace 
of  God.  I  pass  by  here  what  remains  in  chapter  iii.,  all 
wonderful,  merciful,  and  marvellous  as  it  is.  The  mercy 
of  God  the  Father,  in  Christ  the  Son,  to  man  fallen  ; 
the  curse  of  the  tempter  ;  the  promise  of  redemption  ; 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Tree  of  Life.  It  is  told  us  why 
it  ;  was  that  cur  first  parents  were  driven  forth  of  the 
Garden  of  Eden.  It  is  told  us  of  the  mystery  of  the  Tree 
of  Life.  It  is  given  to  us  to  compare  carefully  and 
humbly  Genesis  iii.  23-4,  with  the  last  chapter  of  the 
Revelation  of  St.  John — the  beginning  of  the  Old  Scrip- 
ture with  the  end  of  the  New  ;  and  to  lay  it  up  in  our 
hearts  and  minds,  waiting  upon  God.  The  Rationalist 
laughs  at  all  this.  He  says,  "  I  cannot  understand  it." 
Surely  he  cannot.  "  I  am  ready,"  he  adds  complacently, 
"  to  go  along  with  it  so  far  as  my  reasoning  power  will 
allow  me  to  go  ;  and  I  do  not  quite  see  how  far  that  might 


191 

be.  Farther  I  cannot  go."  What  the  Rationalist  does 
herein  is  that  he  makes  himself  one  of  the  "  gods "  of 
the  tempter's  temptation — thinks  he  knows,  but  does  not 
know  "good  and  evil" — (Hebraism  for  all  things).  I 
repeat  that  Rationalism  is  the  Sadduceeism  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

II.    I  pass  on  now  from  what  I  had  to  say  in  limine^ 
upon  the  nature  and  effects  of  Rationalism,  to  the  actual 
present  position  of  the  Church  of  England  in  respect  of 
them.     At  the  close  of  the  XlXth  Century  of  Redemp- 
tion, that  nature  and  those  effects  have  re-presented  them- 
selves  under   special  circumstances  in  the  publication  of 
the   book  "  Lux   Mundi,"  issuing  from  what  was,  but  is 
not    now,  The    Pusey   House,    Oxford,   November,    1889, 
edited  by  the  Principal  of  the  house  still   so  called  but 
not  so  being.     I  cite  from  paragraphs  1-2  of  Preface  to 
first  and  tenth  editions,  the  words  which  are  the  key  to 
the  main  purpose  of  the  entire  volume,  and  to  the  method 
of  carrying  out  that  purpose.       The   Preface  is  the  true 
interpreter  of  the  book.       Let   me  ask  closest  attention 
to  every  word  cited.     Par.  I. — "The  writers  of  this  volume 
found  themselves  at  Oxford  together  between  the  years 
1 875 -1 885,  engaged   in  the  common  work  of  University 
education  ;  and  compelled  for  their  own  sake  no  less  than 
that  of  others,  to  attempt  to  put  the  Catholic  Faith  into  its 
right  relation  to  modern  intellectual  and  moral  problems" 
Par.  2. — "  This  collection  of  essays  represents  an  attempt 
on  behalf  of  the  Christian  Creed  in  the  way  of  explana- 
tion.     We   are  sure  that  Jesus  Christ  is  still,  and   will 
continue  to   be,  the   Light  of  the  world.      We  are  sure 
that  if  men  can  rid  themselves  of  prejudices  and  mistakes 
(for  which,  it  must  be  said,  the  Church  is  often  as  re- 
sponsible  as   they),   and    will    look    afresh    at   what    the 
Christian  faith  really  means,  they  will  find  it  as  adequate 
as    ever    to    interpret    life  and   knowledge  in   its  several 
departments,  and  to  impart  not  less  intellectual  than  moral 
freedom.     But  we  are  conscious,  also,  that,  if  the  true  mean- 
ing of  the  faith  is  to  be  made  sufficiently  conspicuous,  it  needs 


192 

disenannberhtg,  re-interpreting,  explaining!'     Par.  i.— We 
have  here  the  statement  of  an  "  attempt  "  on  the  part  of 
twelve  priests  of  the  Church  of  England  to  exercise,  "  for 
their  own  sake,  no  less  than  that  of  others,"  the  power  of 
''Putting  the  Catholic  Faith  into  its  right  relation  to  modern 
intellectual  and  moral  problems."      The  hypothesis  upon 
which  the  attempt  proceeds  is  that   modern   intellectual 
and   moral   problems  require  now,  and  will  of  necessity 
and  continually  require  in  the  nature  of  the  thing,  from 
time  to   time,  unto  the  end,  revisions  of  the  faith,  and 
present  and  future  readjustments  of  it  to  them.      What 
is  meant  here  by  "  intellectual  freedom  "  we  are  not  told. 
If  it  means  the  freedom  of  judging  of  the  Divine  authority 
of  portions  of  Holy  Scripture— which  appears  to  be  the 
meaning— then    this    is    naked    Rationalism.      We    know 
what  the  moral  freedom   of  the  Christian  is.      It  is  the 
living  under  and  obeying  by  the  Spirit  "the  perfect  law 
of  liberty."      But  this  great  gift  of  God  has  nothing  in 
common  with  the  "  intellectual  freedom  "  which  constitutes 
itself  a  judge  of  the  Revelation  of  God  in  "  Holy  Scrip- 
ture," in  order  to  decide,  at  the  bidding  of  the   literary 
critic  of  the  time,  whether  this  or  that  portion  of  it  be 
Holy  Scripture  or   not ;    and    may  not  be  coupled  with 
"moral  freedom."     The  concluding  sentence  of  Par.  II., 
p.  vii.,  "  But,"  down  to  "  explaining,"  fills  up  the  demand  of 
"Lux  Mundi  "     In  order  to  making ''the  true  meanitig  of 
the  faith   sufficiently  conspicuous'' — what  these    two  last 
words  may  mean  I  do  not  know— but  I  think  they  mean 
a  great  deal  which  is  not  explained— the  faith  needs  "  dis- 
encumbering'' of  something,  of  what  again  we  are  not  told, 
"re-interpreting"  " explairiing."      The   Church,  then,   has 
been  in  the  dark   some   1,900  years   in  respect  of  what 
"  The  Faith  "  is.     What  is   the  meaning  of  the  words  t 
What  is  the  true   nature  and  the   measure  of  the  faith 
which    receives    the    Faith?     The    "attempt"    of  "Lux 
Mundi  "  is  to  enlighten  the  Church,  taken  from  a  posi- 
tion of  "quasi  and  self-assumed  authority."     It  does  this 
by  calling  in  the  forces  of  Rationalism.     I  have  said  from 


193 

the  first  that  the  whole  gist  and  all  the  cause  of  deepest 
distress  in  and  by  "  Lux  Mundi  "  is  in  the  first  page  of  the 
preface  as  it  stands  in  the  first  and  the  tenth  editions.  It  is 
certainly  a  curious  position  at  the  close  of  Cent.  XIX., 
that  the  attempt  of  Churchmen  should  be  not  to  '^  Jiear  the 
Church  V' but  to  teach  the  Church  new  and  strange  things 
by  way  of  relieving  a  distressed,  that  is  a  doubting,  faith. 
To  teach  that  a  man  may  believe  less,  may  take  away 
from  his  belief,  in  order  to  believe  in  what  is  left  under 
this  process.  Upon  the  above,  let  me  say  what,  in  its  sum, 
I  have  said  privately  and  publicly  many  times  since  the 
first  publication  of  the  book — that  they  are  words  of  the 
Rationalist,  inventing  a  faith,  to  be  "  disencumbered,"  "  re- 
interpreted," "explained  "  some  1900  years  after  Christ,  as 
set  forth  in  the  book  "Lux  Mundi."  And  that,  of  them- 
selves, they  carry  with  them  the  complete  justification  of 
all  that  has  been,  as  yet,  said  or  done  against  the  book. 
The  book  has  since  passed  through  many  editions,  and, 
some  attempts  at  explanation  by  its  editor  notwithstand- 
ing, remains  in  all  its  substance  the  same  book. 

III.  It  has,  unhappily,  become  my  duty  in  my  place  in 
this  Cathedral  church  to  resume  the  charge  of  Rational- 
ism, and  of  the  agency  employed  to  carry  out  the  purposes 
of  the  Rationalist.  That  agency  is  the  negation  of  the 
Divine  authority  of  portions  of  Holy  Scripture  as  not 
being  genuine  and  authentic  in  the  judgment  of  the 
literary  critic  of  the  new  criticism  of  the  present  and  all 
future  time  ;  thereby  laying  the  foundation  in  the  Church 
of  England,  at  the  close  of  the  XlXth  Century  of  redemp- 
tion, for  the  perpetual  re-editing  of  faith  in  Holy  Scripture 
to  the  end  of  time,  by  the  hands  of  the  literary  critic.  It 
is  this  negation,  issued  from  what  was  The  Pusey  House, 
1889,  that  I  am  principally  concerned  with  in  this  sermon. 
All  such  negation,  on  whatever  ground  advanced,  is  a  tree 
of  Rationalistic  growth,  bearing  deadly  fruit  throughout 

•  Note  that,  out  of  the  1 1  verses  of  Psalm  xcv.,  the  Psalm  selected  to  be 
read  every  day  of  Morning  Prayer,  the  warning  against  Rationalism  occupies 
the  four  last  verses. 

O 


194 

all  time  for  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  Since  the 
publication  of  the  book,  the  Principal  of  the  House  has 
been  appointed  to,  and  has  served  in,  the  office  of 
Bampton  lecturer.  This  is  enough  to  show  what  the 
position  Rationalistic  is  in  its  extent  and  power.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  has  to  be  stated  that  the  negation 
above  specified  has  no  warrant,  but  the  reverse,  from  the 
great  name  and  authority  of  Edward  Bouveric  Puscy  ; 
nor,  again,  from  those  of  his  nearest  and  dearest 
friend  and  coadjutor  of  late  years,  Henry  Parry 
Liddon. 

But,  it  is  said  there  is  large  counter  criticism  as  against 
the  "  new  criticism,"  dealing  with  portions  of  the  Old 
Scriptures  as  a  thing  to  be  brought  to  the  bar  of  man's 
reasoning  power,  and  waiting,  not  only  in  and  for  this 
generation,  but  in  and  for  every  succeeding  generation,  for 
the  decision  of  the  literary  critic  whether  each  one  of  those 
portions  be  of  Divine  authority  or  not.  Now  criticism 
may  be  a  very  useful  thing  when  applied  to  men's  books, 
but  it  can  never  be  useful  or  lawful  when  applied  to  the 
Book  of  God  for  the  purpose  of  settling  aye  or  no  whether 
this  or  that  part  of  it  is  of  God,  or  is  not  of  God  ;  that  is, 
is  part  of  the  Bible,  or  not  part  of  it,  by  man's  authority, 
and  may  be  dealt  with  accordingly  as  each  man  pleases. 
Any  such  rule  is  shut  out  vi  terviini.  The  rule  in  such 
case  has  been  decided  for  all  men  once  for  all  by  the 
Spirit  guiding  the  undivided  Church  into  all  truth  ;  the 
Church  Catholic,  for  all  time,  in  respect  of  which  are  the 
books  that  make  up  Holy  Scripture — that  is  the  Books  of 
the  Old  and  the  New  Testament  ;  and  therein  receiving 
the  name  of  "  The  Canonical  Books,"  and  we  know  what 
it  is,  the  warning  it  would  be  well  for  us  to  carry  about 
with  us  always,  what  it  is  to  resist  the  Spirit,  Criticism 
of  interpretation  of  language  is  one  thing.  It  has  to  be 
most  carefully  and  reverently  done.  But  I  say  it  is  one 
thing.  Criticism  of  Divine  authority,  i.e.,  whether  the 
part  criticised  be,  under  any  manner  of  interpretation, 
of   Divine  authority  or  not,   is  another   thing.       It   may 


195 

not  be  done  reverently,  because  it  may  not  be  done  at 
all.  The  Bible  has  been  delivered  to  the  Church  to  keep 
and  deliver  what  it  has  received  to  each  people  in  their 
own  language.  It  has  been  delivered  to  no  people,  to  no 
man,  to  cavil  and  dispute  about,  whether  this  or  that  part 
of  it  be  a  part  of  the  Word  of  God,  or  not.  The  pride  of 
reason  calls  out,  and  will  continue  to  call  out,  against  this 
to  the  end  of  time;  but  this  is,  and  will  only  be,  to 
manifest  before  God  and  man  what  a  foolish,  illogical, 
unreasonable,  and  self-condemnatory  thing  reason  is  when 
becoming  unreason  ;  by  asking  to  know  what  it  cannot 
know,  leaving  its  own  province,  it  ventures  itself  into  the 
province  of  God,  to  settle  anew  in  its  own  finite  way,  for 
its  own  little  life,  what  the  Infinite  has  in  His  inscrutable 
wisdom  settled  from  the  beginning.  Man  ever  craving  to 
know — oh  !— how  much  that  he  can  never  know  here,  but 
putting  on  patience  and  comfort  of  the  Holy  Word  of 
God,  waits  upon  God  to  tell  him  when  and  how  God  sees 
fit.  Receiving  trials  of  his  reasoning  power  as  mercies  to 
bring  him  to  be  humble,  not  as  grounds  for  being  rebel- 
lious in  the  wisdom  of  his  own  heart  (Job  xxxvii,  24),  he 
goes  on  his  way  comforted  ;  rejoicing  in  deep  thankfulness 
for  the  good  that  is  in  him  for  Christ's  sake  by  the  Spirit. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  are  words  of  awful  warning  in 
Holy  Scripture  of  what  shall  come  in  "  the  last  time,"  that 
of  the  last  dispensation,  that  dispensation  under  which  we 
and  those  who  come  after  us  live  and  shall  live  unto  the 
end.  Above  all,  doth  not  our  Blessed  Lord  warn  us — 
"  When  the  Son  of  Man  cometh,  shall  He  find  faith  upon 
the  earth  ?  "  And  has  there  ever  been  a  time  with  us  here 
in  England  when  there  has  been  a  louder  call  upon  the 
Church  people  of  England  to  cry  with  Moses  as  he  stood 
at  the  gate  of  the  camp,  "  Who  is  on  the  Lord's  side  ?  " 
(Exod.  xxxii.  26.) 

IV.  I  have  used  the  word  "  resume,"  because  it  was  my 
duty  to  ascertain  first  what  I  might  be  able  to  do  in  this 
unhappy  matter  in  my  place  in  Convocation  of  Canter- 
bury.    I  began  to  move  in  Convocation,  that  is,  to  "  Tell 

o  2 


196 

it  to  the  Church,"  after  statements  pubh'c  and  private,  and 
correspondence  private  and  pubHc,  Session  May  6,  1890. 
Synods,  or  Convocations  in  England,  of  the  two  Provinces 
of  Canterbury  and  York,  each  within  its  own  province,  or 
conjointly,  in  a  national  synod,  are  the  only  place,  or 
places,  from  which  issues  the  living  voice  of  the  Church  in 
the  province,  or  the  corporative  voice  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  both  provinces  conjointly.  The  final  issue  of 
my  move  in  synod.  Session  Feb.  3-4,  1891,  with  my 
summary  of  it  and  preface  to  my  speech  republished 
by  request,  is  given  above '^.  I  state  here  the  charges 
laid  in  my  gravamen  (or  complaint),  laid  before  both 
Houses     of    the     Synod     of    Province     of     Canterbury. 

1.  That  in  the  book  "  Lux  Mundi,"  our  blessed  Lord's 
positive  teaching  in  respect  of  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures is  limited  to  those  instances  in  which  our  Blessed 
Lord  has  Himself  prefaced,  or  accompanied  His  "  teach- 
ing," by  His  own  afifirmation  of  its  "positive"  character. 

2.  That,  in  every  other  instance,  the  book  assumes  it  to  be 
the  right,  power,  and  proper  function  of  the  literary  critic 
of  this,  and  every  successive,  generation  to  discern,  in  the 
above-named  respect,  between  the  "  positive  "  and  ''  non- 
positive  "    character   of    our    Blessed    Lord's    "  teaching." 

3.  That  such  limitation  and  assumption  {a)  cannot  be  re- 
conciled with  the  Holy  Gospel,  {b)  that  they  tend  to  "  be- 
guile "  and  '•  corrupt  "  men's  minds  from  the  simplicity 
that  is  in  Christ,  {c)  that  they  are  irreverent  towards  Him, 
perfect  God  and  perfect  man,  {d)  that  they  are  contrary  to 
the  authority  of  the  Church,  as  declared  by  the  sixth 
Article  of  Religion,  {e)  that  they  are  contrary  to  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments. 
I  failed  in  obtaining  committee  to  inquire  into  and  report 
upon  the  charges  laid  by  me  with  proofs  of  them  tendered. 
I  have  then  said  already  all  that  it  was  necessary  for  me 
to  say  up  to  this  time.  I  resume  the  contention  now  in 
another  form. 

**  See  in  the  present  Volume,  pp.  142 — 168. 


197 

V.  It  is  plain  from  facts,  from  letters,  books,  reports 
of  facts  and  prospects  "  educational "  (so  called),  general 
tone   of  public    papers,    conversational    language,    things 
done,  and  things  left  undone,  that  the  English   mind  is 
all  at  sea  in  the  matter  of  Rationalism  v.  Religion.     This 
has  lately  appeared  in  force,  as  it  always  has  done  in  the 
history  of  the  Church,  in  the  forms  of  the  "  inventions  " 
of  learned    men.      It  has    always    been   the   special    and 
commanding  temptation   of  the   learned   man  to  be  led 
by  Rationalism  v.  Religion  <=.     It  is  rapidly,  in  our  time 
from   ever-growing  means  of  intercourse  and    communi- 
cation of  "  thought "  by  word,  and  writing,  and  printing, 
infecting  the  millions.     Now,  of  all  cruel  things  that  a  man 
can  do  to  those  he  influences  in  any  way,  the  most  cruel, 
because  the   most  deadly,  now  and   ever,   is  to  guide — 
I  should  say,  seduce — him  into  Rationalism  v.  Religion. 
He  takes  away  from    his   victim — calling   him    his  dear 
friend — all  his  comfort,  all  his  hope  ;  and  gives  him  no- 
thing  in    their   room    except    the   self-confidence   of  the 
creature  of  threescore   years  and   ten — a  confidence  be- 
longing to  this  world  only. 

There  is  a  kindred  distress  suggested  here  by  the  temper 
of  the  times.  If  I  were  here  enumerating  in  the  order  of 
their  grounds  for  fear  the  causes  of  distress  and  unhappy 
prospect  arising  out  of,  and  inseparably  connected  with, 
the  book  "Lux  Mundi,"  and  with  the  special  adjuncts 
of  its  conception  and  publication,  I  should  put  in  the  first 
place  not  the  book  itself,  but  the  carelessness,  indifference, 
apathy  with  which  it  has  been  so  largely  received  by 
English  Churchmen,  lay  and  clerical.  With  the  last  of 
these  two  the  blame  chiefly  rests.  It  is  true  that  it  is 
only  "  the  natural  man  "  who  rejoices  in  it,  as  he  does  in 
everything  which  is  for  the  supremacy  of  the  Reasoning 
Power  and  against  the  Faith.  But  it  is  very  largely  the 
spiritual  man,  also,  who,  though  not  rejoicing  in  it  at  all 

'  Next  in  order  of  time  to  Socinus,  Hobbes  and  Herbert  were  the  leaders  of 
modern  European  heresy.  It  is  a  heavy  debt  for  England  to  add  to  at  the 
close  of  Cent.  XIX. 


198 

is,  very  curiously,  little  disturbed  by  it,  and   all   that   it 

indicates    and    presages.     There  is   much    increased   care 

amongst  us  about  details  of  the  house  of  Church  life,  there 

is  something  very  like  indifference  about  the  safety  of  the 

house  itself     It  is  not  "  I  don't  care  " — it  is  "  I  don't  see 

what  I  can  do  ; "   and,  certainly  if  the  Church,  speaking 

by  its  Synod,  says,  "  I  don't  see  what  I  can  do,"  it  is  only 

what  is  to  be  looked   for  that   individual   Church-people 

should  say  the  same  thing.     But,  then,  I  ask,  what  shall 

surely  come  out  of  this  ?     Is  this  what  our  Blessed  Lord 

has  told  us  to  look  for,  when   He  said,  "  Tell  it  unto  the 

Church  ? "     Is  it  not  rather  a  sign  of  an  evil  time  coming 

fast  upon  us,  when  the  cry  will  be  indeed  the  cry  of  Moses, 

**  Who  is  on  the  Lord's  side  ? "     I  have  taken  part  publicly 

for  the  last  fifty  years  in  many  matters  of  grievous  trouble 

and  distress  to  the   Church  of  England.     I   have  never 

been  concerned  with  any  matter  of  so  great  trouble  and 

distress  as  that  now  raised  by  the  book  "  Lux  Mundi," 

and  its   reception   in  England.     "  Lux   Mundi "   has   laid 

its  hand  upon,  would  remove,  if  it  has  its  way,  the  Church 

built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  Apostles  and  Prophets, 

Jesus  Christ  Himself  being  the  Head  Corner  Stone,  and 

would  put  into  its  place  the  Church  of  the  Rationalist  ; 

that  is  to  say,  no  Church  at  all,  but  a  collection  of  unbeliefs 

in  Holy  Scripture  accepted  by  the  reasoning  power  of  the 

individual  man,  learned  and  unlearned,  and  issuing  in  this 

general  affirmation,  as  sufficient  proof  that  Holy  Scripture 

is   not  what  the  Church  Catholic   has  declared   it  to  be. 

The  present  object  proposed  being,  as  stated  in  the  preface, 

the  relief  of  the  writers  of  the  book  themselves,  and  others, 

from   a  distressed,  i.e.,  a  doubting,  faith  by  the  remedy 

of    surrendering    portions    of   Holy    Scripture,   as    being 

proved   by  man's  reason,  to  be  not  of  Divine  authority, 

because  found  to  be,  by  the  "  New  Criticism,"  not  genuine 

or  not  authentic,  or  both.     This  in  the  hope  of  persuading 

the  "distressed  faith"  to  believe  in  what  remains  to  the 

end  of  time  of  the  Book  of  God  under  the  new  method 

of  handling  it  by  man. 


199 

The    principle,   then,  of  the   book   being   Rationalism, 
the   method   of  advocating  the   principle  is   the  judging 
of   Holy   Scripture   in    respect   of  the   primary  question 
in  the  matter—/.^.,  Is  this  portion  of  it  Holy  Scripture, 
or  is  it  not  Holy  Scripture  ?— and  seeking  to  find,  in  the 
reply  to  this  question  what  is  in  truth,  another  Bible— 
the  IBible  of  the  New  Criticism.     The  Bible  is  the  founda- 
tion of  The  Faith.     If  this  perpetual  uncertainty,  added 
to  year  by  year  by  the   discoveries  of  learned  men   in 
respect  of  what  is  meant  by  "  The  Bible,"  is  to  be  the  rule 
of  The  Faith,  what  shall  become  of  The  Faith  ?    Are  not 
our   Lord's   words   the   answer— "  When    Christ   cometh, 
shall  He  find  faith  upon  the  earth?"  The  Gospel  author- 
ity of  our  Blessed  Lord  being  not  reconcilable  with  this 
manner  of  handling  the  Old  Scriptures,  the  mystery  of 
Christ  in  His  Divine  and  Human  Nature  is  freely  handled, 
and  conclusions  based  thereupon  that  in  His  human  nature, 
He  was  ignorant  of  historical  fact,  in  common  with  the 
men    of  His   time.     It  is  terrible  to  have  to  write  and 
speak  and  repeat  such  things  ;   but  they  are  before  our 
eyes,  and  wringing  our  hearts.     There  is  also  one  thing 
more,  of  all  the  most  grievous— that  Christ,  knowing  that 
there  were  things   in  the  old  Scripture  of  the  character 
of  myth,  used  them  in  citation   and  reference  as  things 

of  fact. 

It  has  also  been  attempted  to  supply  a  test  of  the 
character  of  the  references  and  citations  to  and  from  the 
Old  Scriptures  by  our  Blessed  Lord— the  test  that  He 
is  teaching  positively  only  when  He  affirms  expressly 
that  He  is  so  teaching.  Now,  there  is  no  such  instance 
in  the  Gospels.  The  issue,  then,  of  this  contrivance  of 
the  defence  of  "Lux  Mundi "  is  that,  in  the  627  places 
of  such  reference  and  citation  d,  our  Blessed  Lord  is  open 
to  be  judged  upon  every  one  of  them  by  the  Literary 
Critic,  and  the  judgment  to  be  registered  for  or  against 

Him. 

I  turn  away  in  weariness  and  pain  from  these  thmgs, 

'^  See  above,  pp.  156— i6i. 


200 

marvelling  at  the  copious  currency  into  which  they  have 
passed — marvelling  at  the  source  which  looks  like  the 
beginning  of  not  only  a  great  river,  but  a  devastating 
flood.  I  turn  away  to  the  Bible  itself.  What  hath  the 
Bible  done  to  and  for  man?  What  hath  the  Almighty 
God  done,  promised,  and  pledged  Himself  in  Christ  to 
do  for  all  men  by  the  Eternal  Spirit,  to  have  return  like 
this  made  unto  Him  by  the  crying  aloud  for  a  new  faith 
1,900  years  after  Christ — by  using  the  light  words  of  man's 
vanity  (that  is,  both  his  pride  and  his  emptiness)  against 
the  one  Record  of  His  holy  Will,  His  mercies,  warnings, 
promises  to  man,  fallen,  redeemed,  elect,  saved.  I  turn 
to  the  Word  of  God,  Holy  Scripture,  The  Bible,  The  Book, 
The  Book  of  God.  The  one  Record  of  the  relations  of 
God  to  man,  and  therein  of  man  to  God.  The  one 
Witness  unto  life  or  unto  death  of  every  man  born  into 
the  world  in  body  and  soul.  The  Bible,  as  by  gift  of  the 
Eternal  Spirit,  promised  and  pledged  by  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  guiding  the  undivided  Church,  the 
Church  Catholic,  into  all  truth.  The  Bible,  the  Book  for 
all  men,  put  into  the  hands  of  all  men — with  the  Creeds 
and  the  Sacraments  and  the  Orders  of  the  Ministry  of  the 
Church — put  into  the  hands  of  all  men  by  the  Church, 
wheresoever  the  Church  can  come.  If  Holy  Scripture  be 
dealt  with  not  as  it  has  been  given,  but  according  to  the 
"  inventions  "  of  men.  Holy  Scripture  is,  as  ever,  by  its 
own  nature,  its  own  critic  —  its  own  defender,  maintainer, 
advocate.  If  it  be  called  in  question  by  the  wisdom  of 
man,  which  is  foolishness  with  God,  it  re-states  itself. 
This  is  its  criticism,  its  maintenance,  its  defence,  its 
advocacy.  Holy  Scripture  does  not  argue  against  the 
criticism  of  man.  It  re-states  itself.  Holy  Scripture  as 
set  forth  for  the  Church  of  England  in  her  Sixth  Article 
of  Religion  some  320  years  ago. 

We  have,  in  the  first  of  my  two  texts  (Deut.  xxix.  29), 
two  things  which  are  stamped  upon  every  page  of  Holy 
Writ.  I.  The  Mystery  of  God  and  His  works,  stamped 
in  the  first  three  words  of  the  first  Book  of  Moses,  "  In  the 


201 

beginning."     In  the  same  first  words  of  St.  John's  Gospel  ; 
in    the    5th  verse   of  his    Gospel,  chapter    xvii.      In   the 
closing  words  of  his  Revelation.     Mystery  unapproachable 
and  unsearchable  ;    that  which  cannot  be  approached  by 
man's  reason,  and  which  7nay  not  be  searched  into  by  it. 
2.  The  duty  of  obedience  of  man  to  God  as  enjoined  and 
required    by  every  Word  of  His  Law.      When  God  has 
abrogated  any  portion  of  His  Law,  He  has  abrogated  it 
Himself.     Where  He  has  not,  it  is  not  for  man  to  touch  it 
or  to  "  invent  "  anything  in  its  room.     This  is  the  twofold 
character  of  Holy  Writ,  written  upon  every  page  of  Holy 
Writ.     The  Mystery  is  Eternal.     It  may  be — we  do  not 
know — Everlasting,  when  this  world  and  all  that  has  been 
or  is  in  it  is  gone.     The  obedience  remains  for  Heaven  as 
it  had  remained  for  Earth  ;  the  thankful  acceptance  of  it, 
the  living  in  and  by  it  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men, 
high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  one  with  another,  learned  and 
unlearned,  all  alike — with  this  difference  only,  that  to  him 
to  whom  much  has  been  given,  of  him  will  much  be  re- 
quired— issue  in  the  newness  of  life,  which  the  Mercy  of 
God  has  made  possible  to  man  by  His  grace  restored  to 
man  by  the  Sacrifice  of  The  Cross.     In  the  eating  of  the 
Tree  of  Life,  in  the  Eternal  and  Everlasting  Garden  of 
God. — Rev.  c.  xxii.    Of  these  two  characters  then  of  Holy 
Writ,    compound    and    yet   in   their   nature    distinct,   the 
character  of  the  Mystery  holds  the  first  and  the  all  com- 
manding place.     It  is  the  source  out  of  which  the  require- 
ment of  obedience  flows— the  requirement  of  the  "  reason- 
able "  service  of  man.     Together  they  are  the  account  of 
all  Holy  Writ.     The  reasoning  power  is,  as  an  instrument, 
the  chief  gift  of  God  to  man,  because  it  enables  man  to 
receive  Holy  Scripture.     To  receive,  apprehend  so  far  as  it 
is  the  Will  of  God,  and  to  obey  the  law  of  Holy  Scripture. 
The  chief  gift  of  God  has,  like  all  His  other  gifts,  its  own 
special  trial.     That  trial  is  whether  it  will  receive  Holy 
Scripture  in  repentance,  in  thankfulness,  in  love,  in  sim- 
plicity of  faith,  for  the  purposes  for  which   it  has  been 
given,  or  whether  it  will  receive  it  to  doubt  and  question  it 


202 

in  the  "  pride  of  life."  In  unreason  asking  to  know  what 
it  cannot  know,  in  the  presumptuous  sin,  the  tempting 
God — the  sin  by  which  the  world  fell.  The  List  of  the 
three  temptations  of  Christ,  the  "  Tempting  God." 

'Tempt  not  the  Lord  thy  God,  He  said,  and  stood  : 
Then  Satan,  smitten  with  amazement,  fell.' 

Paradise  Regained. 

It  is,  then,  in  the  right  consideration  of  the  compound 
character  of  Holy  Scripture,  distinct  and  compound, 
primary  and  subordinate,  unapproachable  and  un- 
searchable by  the  reasoning  power,  and  }'ct  appealing 
to  all  that  is  in  it  humble  before  God — absolute  in 
requiring  acceptance  and  obedience,  merciful  in  deliver- 
ing the  way  wherein  justice  and  mercy  meet,  but  disclosing 
no  part  of  the  mystery  of  the  way,  this  being  a  thing  not 
of  earth  but  of  heaven — all  this,  yea,  and  much  more  than 
this,  delivering  the  mystery  of  the  Eternity  of  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Ghost,  without  unfolding  one  ray  of  the  m)'stery 
of  the  Godhead,  but  ever  inviting  by  all  grace  the  exercise 
of  reason  within  its  own  province  unto  life  eternal,  that  we 
find  the  province  of  man  created.  It  is  in  these  characters 
of  the  revelation  of  God  that  is  given  unto  man  the  key  to 
the  connection  between  the  character  and  the  dependence  of 
the  character  of  obedience  upon  the  character  of  mystery, 
and  therein  to  all  true  reverence  towards  all  Holy  Scrip- 
ture as  given  of  God  for  man's  use  in  obeying,  not  for  his 
criticism  upon  any  portion  of  it,  /.t'.,  whether  it  be  a  portion 
of  Holy  Scripture  or  not ;  nor,  again,  whether  any  char- 
acter of  drama  or  m}-th,  much  less  of  uncertain  knowledge, 
in  Christ  Himself,  can  be  assigned  to  it.  Where  is  there 
one  word  in  Holy  Scripture  giving  this  licence  to  the 
reasoning  power  ?  There  are  many  words  denying  it 
and  foreboding  doom  upon  such  its  exercise.  The  reason 
of  man  when  venturing  beyond  the  bounds  of  its  own  pro- 
vince, in  the  pride  of  possession  over  all  other  things 
created,  lands  itself  in  the  darkness  which  can  be  felt.  It 
were  better  not  to  have  had  Reason  at  all  than  to  have  it 
upon  the  terms  of  Rationalism. 


203 

Alas  for  the  Pusey  House  ;  alas  for  Oxford,  with  its 
watchword  of  old  time,  "  Douimus  Illuviijiatio  Meal'  torn, 
blotted,  defaced. 

To  what  then  do  the  reasonings — I  should  say  "  assump- 
tions : "  for  reasonings  there  neither  are,  nor  can  be,  in  this 
matter — to  what  do  the  assumptions  come  ?  They  come 
to  this. 

That,  on  the  one  hand,  He  "  By  Whom  all  things  were 
made  " — Who  came  from  the  Glory  which  He  had  with  The 
Father  before  the  World  was — Who  made  Himself  of  no 
reputation,  and  took  upon  Him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and 
was  made  in  the  likeness  of  men  ;  and,  being  found  in 
fashion  as  a  man,  He  humbled  Himself,  and  became 
obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  Cross.  He  of 
Whom  it  is  said  by  Himself  in  one  place  in  the  Gospel, 
in  the  unfathomable  Mystery  of  His  Incarnation,  that  He 
did  not  know — that  He  is  to  be  placed,  in  respect  of  know- 
ledge of  His  Own  Scriptures,  on  the  same  basis  as  any 
other  man  of  His  time  upon  earth  ;  and  that  therefore  it 
follows,  according  to  what  man  calls  his  reason,  that  His 
testimony  to  the  Old  Scriptures  so  continually  given  in 
the  Gospels  is  within  man's  province  to  dispute. 

The  demand  herein  made  for  himself  by  the  creature  of 
threescore  years  and  ten,  if  it  were  not  so  dangerous  to 
souls,  would  only  be  eminently  ridiculous. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  whom  is  it  that  men  are  invited 
to  place  the  confidence  due  to  unlimited  knowledge,  which 
is  denied  to  the  limited  knowledge  of  Christ  the  Redeemer 
and  the  Saviour  ? 

It  is  the  Literary  Critic — the  fallen  creature  whom  He, 
"  perfect  God  and  perfect  Man,"  came  to  save — the  Literary 
Critic  of  all  successive  generations  to  the  end  of  time — the 
Literary  Critic,  the  man  of  man's  books  and  stones  and 
manuscripts,  and  "  many  inventions."  Do  we  want  an 
example  of  "  the  wisdom  of  the  world,"  which  is  "  foolish- 
ness with  God  ?  "  Here  it  is  in  the  garb  of  our  poor 
humanity — Man  dies  in  the  pride  of  thought  that  he  has 
"  limited  "  Christ ;  he  rises  again  only  by  and  for  the  sake 
and  by  the  power  of  the  "  limited  ^'  Christ. 


204 

The  man  who  shrinks  from  so  much  as  the  shadow  of 
RationaHsm  lying  across  his  path  to  the  strait  gate  by  the 
narrow  way — crying  aloud, '  Lord,  I  bcHeve,  help  thou  mine 
unbelief — the  man  who  prays  with  the  Church  of  England 
— **  Blessed  Lord,  who  hast  caused  all  Holy  Scriptures  to  be 
written  for  our  learning ;  grant  that  we  may  in  such  wise 
hear  them,  read,  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly  digest  them, 
that  by  patience,  and  comfort  of  Thy  Holy  Word,  we  may 
embrace,  and  ever  hold  fast  the  blessed  hope  of  everlastinfr 
life,  which  thou  hast  given  us  in  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  " 
— this  is  the  man  of  humble,  childlike  faith.  There  are 
many  such  among  the  few  who  are  learned — there  are 
thousands  and  ten  thousands  among  the  millions.  Learn- 
ing is  not  needed  to  make  a  man  faithful  to  Christ.  When 
God  sees  fit  He  gives  it  to  be  used  to  His  glory.  If 
a  man  wants  learning  not  given  him  in  the  Providence  of 
God,  he  is  turning  his  want  into  a  snare,  and  falls  a  prey 
to  those  who  live  upon  the  pride  of  their  reason.  The 
Englishman  has  his  Bible  and  his  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments  in  his  hands  ;  he 
has  his  Church  and  his  Priest.  He  has  his  Bible  stamped 
and  sealed  with  two  characters  distinct  and  yet  combined 
for  man's  humblest  and  thankfulest  use  in  the  mercy  of 
God.  The  character  of  the  Mystery  of  God  is  delivered 
to  man,  not  to  his  reason,  which  cannot  touch  it,  but  to 
his  faith.  The  character  of  the  call  and  the  command  to 
obey  and  keep  the  commandment  of  God  in  all  holy  fear. 
There  is  no  word  in  the  Bible  about  bringing  the  Bible  to 
trial  before  the  Court  of  Man's  Reasoning  Power  in  order 
to  arrive  now,  some  1,900  years  after  Christ,  at  "  what  faith 
in  Christ  means."  All  the  obedience  of  faith  flows  out  of 
the  Mystery  of  God,  as  being  the  pure  river  of  the  water 
of  life  proceeding  out  of  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the 
Lamb.  May  God,  in  His  Mercy,  give  us  grace  in  this 
dangerous  time  to  lay  these  things  unto  our  hearts  and 
minds,  that  we  be  not  deceived,  and,  being  deceived  unto 
the  end,  fail  of  our  hope  in  Christ. 


SERMON    11. 

Preached  in  Wells  Cathedral,  Sunday,  A  tig.  p,  i8qt. 


DEUT.  xxix.   29. 

"  The  secret  thmgs  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God  ;  but  those  things 
ivhich  are  revealed  belong  u?ito  us  and  to  our  children  for  ever, 
that  zve  may  do  all  the  words  of  this  law  " — and  Isaiah  xliii. 
10 — 12,  xliv.  8 — "  Ye  are  My  witnesses,  saith  the  Lord.^^ 

When  I  was  last  here  in  my  place  in  this  Cathedral 
Church,  I  endeavoured  to  contribute  something  towards 
the  answer  of  Religion  to  the  Rationalism  of  the  book 
"  Lux  Mundi."  I  say  "  to  contribute  something,"  because 
I  have  little  of  my  own  to  contribute  but  what  is  in  very 
many  hands  to  bring  wherever  there  is  the  love  of  resting 
in  a  simple  and  implicit  acceptance  of  every  portion  of 
the  Canonical  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ments as  having  the  authority  of  the  Divine  Giver,  and 
as,  more  particularly  in  respect  of  the  Old  Scriptures, 
stamped  and  sealed  for  His  own  in  the  Eternal  know- 
ledge of  Jesus  Christ  before  His  dying  upon  the  Cross, 
and  after  He  rose  again  from  the  dead  ;  given  to  our- 
selves and  to  our  children  to  keep  in  all  their  integrity,  as 
received  by  the  Church  of  England  by  inheritance  from 
the  undivided  Church  guided  into  all  truth  by  the  Spirit ; 
but  portions  of  them  called  in  question,  if  not  formally 
disallowed  to  be  of  Divine  Authority,  and  even  of 
historical  character,  by  the  inventors  and  disciples  of 
"  The  New  Criticism."  This  fact  of  the  present  position 
has  laid  the  foundation  of  an  organised  and  perpetually 
accruing  inquiry,  upon  grounds  of  Science,  Philosophy, 
Criticism  upon  discoveries,  unearthing  of  stones  and  de- 
ciphering of  manuscripts,  into  the  claim  of  "  Holy  Scrip- 
ture "  to  be  received  from  the  first  verse  of  Genesis  to  the 


206 

last  verse  of  Revelation  as  the  Book  of  God.  On  the  one 
side  is  Revelation,  on  the  other  is  Rationalism.  There  is 
no  middle  term  by  which  the  two  terms  can  be  brought 
into  one.  Reason  can  in  its  highest  exercise  demonstrate 
this.  It  has  nothing  to  do  but  to  accept  it,  if  it  would 
that  Revelation  should  do  its  proper  work. 

May  we  have  grace  to  bear  in  mind  always  that  if  the 
Bible,  or  any  portion  of  it,  is  to  be  discarded  at  the 
bidding  of  what  is  called  the  Reasoning  Power,  but  is  the 
unreasoning  power — that  is  to  say,  what  is  commonly 
termed  "Rationalism" — man  has  nothing  wherewith  to 
replace  the  Bible,  save  only  the  new  Bible  of  "  The  New 
Criticism  : "  and  that,  by  picking  and  choosing  from  gene- 
ration to  generation  till  the  end  of  time,  upon  the  ever 
accumulating  conclusions  of  the  so- called  Reasoning 
Power,  what  portions  of  the  Word  of  God  are  to  be 
received  as  of  Divine  authority,  and  what  are  not  to  be 
so  received,  we  shall  have  done  what  we  could  to  destroy 
the  value  of  the  one  Historical  Record  of  the  relation  of 
God  to  man,  and  of  man  to  God. 

Again,  that  the  Bible  is  one  whole  ;  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testaments  making  together  the  Book  of  God 
throughout  its  entire  structure  ;  committed  in  the  order  of 
His  Providence  under  His  Inspiration  to  man  to  write. 
To  detract  in  any  manner  or  degree  from  the  Divine 
Authority  of  any  portion  of  it  upon  the  conclusions,  or 
rather  the  assumptions  of  human  Reason — for  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  conclusions  against  God — is  to  sin  against 
God.     It  is  to  set  up  the  creature  against  the  Creator. 

There  is  another  vital  error  interwoven  throughout  with 
the  teaching  of  "  Lux  Mundi."  It  is  this — that  it  is  the 
office  of  the  Christian  teacher  to  make  belief  in  The  Bible 
as  placed  in  our  hands  an  easy  belief.  Now  there  is  no 
warrant  for  this  anywhere  in  the  Bible.  The  reverse  is 
•  the  fact  of  the  case.  We  are  all  in  this  our  little  life  like 
the  man  who  cried,  "  Lord,  I  believe,  help  Thou  mine 
unbelief."  However  filled  with  peace  here  and  joy  here- 
after, true  belief  is  a  hard  thing  to  come  by.     It  has  to 


207 

fight  day  by  day  by  Grace  sought  and  given  against  the 
powers  of  evil  and  a  self-pleased  and  self-pleasing  nature. 
The  Love  of  God  for  man  does  not  exclude  suffering,  it 
insists  upon  it.     It  lays  the  foundation  in  the  suffering  of 
the  Eternal  Son.     It  instances  it  in  St.  Paul,  "  I  will  show 
him   how  many  things  he    must  suffer    for    My   Name's 
sake."     The    suffering   may  be   from  without,   if  God   so 
wills.     There  is  always  the  suffering  from  within,  through 
which,  by  grace,  we  "cease  from  sin."     It  is  by  so  suf- 
fering, in  the  never-ending  process  of  overcoming,  by  grace 
restored  to  us  in  Christ,  the  natural  man  ;  the  lusts  that 
are  in  us,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the 
pride  of  life  ;  the  last  of  the  three  temptations,  that  which 
waits  on  man's  distinguishing  gift,  his  reasoning  power  ; 
the  temptation  by  which,  it  can   never  be  too  often   re- 
peated, man  fell  away  from   the  grace  of  God,  lost  the 
innocence   and    image    of    God,    in    which    he   had    been 
created,  and  sin  and  death  came  into  the  world  ;  it  is  by 
this  overcoming  in  Christ  that  we  win  Heaven,  as  Christ 
in    the   unfathomable    Mystery  of   His    Incarnation,    His 
suffering  and  His  Victory  on  the  Cross  won  Heaven  for 
us.    Where  does  Christ  so  manifest  His  Eternal  Godhead, 
the  eternal  knowledge  of  His  Godhead  in  the  sight  and 
the  hearing  of  man,  as  when  speaking  in  the  last  words  of 
His  Agony  He  said,  "  It  is  finished,"  and  He  bowed  His 
Head  and  gave  up  the  Ghost  ?     It  is  one  of  the  "  many 
inventions  "  of  man,  usurping  the  place  of  the  Mysteries  of 
God,  to  make  wide  "  the  strait  gate,"  to  make  broad  "  the 
narrow  way." 

And  it  has  become  a  question,  alas  !  a  primary  question, 
for  every  one  of  us,  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  one  with 
another,  what  that  is  which  each  one  of  us  in  a  world  of 
sin,  of  sins  hardly  to  be  named— of  brief  life  here— of 
sorrows,  pains,  diseases,  death,  has  to  hope  and  trust  in  for 
himself,  herself,  his,  hers— I  say  it  has  become  a  common 
question  amongst  us,  whether  this  is  to  be  the  guiding  of 
man's  Reasoning  Power  based  upon  man's  "  discoveries  " 
from  time  to  time  unto  the  end  of  time,  or  the  Revelation 


208 

of  God,  as  given  to  each  one  of  us  once  for  all  in  The 
Bible  and  nowhere  else. 

In  the  Bible,  that  is  in  the  "  Holy  Scripture  "  of  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testaments,  joined  together  by  the  hand  of 
God,  the  Giver  of  both,  by  a  chain  that  cannot  be  broken. 
Take  away  one  link  of  the  chain  and  put  something  of 
your  own  or  any  other  man's  making  in  its  place,  and  you 
turn  to  yourself,  or  to  other  men,  one  or  more,  to  save  you. 
and  not  to  CHRIST,  bidding  us  all,  as  He  bade  the  Jews, 
"  Search  the  Scriptures,  for  in  them  ye  think  ye  have 
eternal  life,  and  they  are  they  which  testify  of  Me." 

In  these  our  days  of  "  thought,"  claiming  to  be  un- 
limited and  uncontrolled  even  by  the  Law  of  God,  we  are 
once  more  invited  not  as  before,  here  and  there  partially, 
and  from  quarters  where  we  might  not  be  surprised  to 
find  it,  but  generally,  powerfully  from  a  quarter  least  to 
be  expected  to  bear  any  fruit  of  the  kind,  to  take  up  the 
Bible  and  deal  with  it  as  with  a  man's  book  ;  the  Book  of 
the  Infinite,  as  the  reasonable  subject-matter  of  the  finite 
reason  of  ourselves  and  our  fellow-men.  The  Bible,  The 
Book  of  God,  written  by  His  Bidding,  inspired  by  His 
Inspiration,  the  Book  filled  with  unsearchable  Mysteries, 
Revealed  only  so  far  as  the  Eternal  Wisdom  that  Reveals 
sees  fit,  and  suitable  to  the  understanding  of  His  finite 
creature  ;  telling  him  all  such  things  as  it  has  pleased  God 
to  tell  him,  all  such  things  as  are  required  and  good  and 
sufiicient  for  his  Redemption  and  Salvation  ;  no  more  and 
no  less. 

The  Englishman  of  our  time,  in  XlXth  Century  of 
Redemption  ;  in  what  St.  John  calls  "the  pride  of  life"  is 
the  first  of  temptations  in  order  of  time  (see  Genesis  iii. 
1-8),  and  the  most  powerful  of  the  three  temptations  which 
our  Blessed  Lord  came  to  "  overcome,"  and  which  man  is 
called  to  "overcome"  in  Him  by  the  Spirit — the  English- 
man, in  "  the  pride  of  life,"  that  is  in  the  pride  of  reasoning 
power,  man's  distinguishing  gift  among  the  creations  of 
God — is  urged  to  take  the  Bible  into  his  hands  and  to  say 
— Let  us  examine  this  book  and  see  what  it  is  worth — 


209 

how  much  we  may  beh'eve  of  it  to  be  of  God,  and  how 
much  we  may  understand  to  be  of  man  only. 

The  conclusion  is  that  the  Bible  cannot  indeed  be  got 
rid  of,  but  is  to  be  manipulated,  "  disencumbered,"  "  re- 
interpreted," "  explained  "  afresh  ;  and  various  degrees  of 
belief  in  it  as  being  of  Divine  Authority,  or  of  man's 
Authority  only,  to  be  assigned  to  this  or  that  portion  of  it. 
It  is  to  become  one  of  the  innumerable  discoveries  of 
man's  "  Art  and  Science  "  what  this  or  that  portion  of  The 
Bible  is  worth. 

What  is,  as  yet,  the  answer  of  the  Church  of  England.^ 
There  is  no  answer.  There  are  individual  Counter  Criti- 
cisms, but  there  is  no  answer  of  the  Church  ;  there  is  no 
living  voice. 

What  is  the  manner  in  which  the  proposal  has  been  and 
is  being  received  ?  That  manner  is  marked  by  nothing 
so  much  as  by  a  desire  to  get  rid  of  the  trouble  of  even 
considering  the  matter,  and  to  go  our  way  congratulating 
ourselves  on  the  rapid  growth  of  subjects  of  interest  and 
admiration,  belonging  to  our  life  here,  which  crowd  them- 
selves day  by  day  into  the  area  of  our  little  life  before  the 
grave.  In  respect  of  these  there  is  abundance  of  praise 
and  honour  bestowed  upon  the  men  who  are  the  instru- 
ments of  God  in  giving  such  things  to  their  fellow-men 
for  the  uses  and  comforts  and  enjoyment  of  this  life,  but 
very  little  of  thanks  of  praise  and  blessing,  thanksgiving 
and  honour  and  glory  to  the  same  God  who  has  given 
them  to  us  for  this  life,  in  our  way  to  the  life  which  is  not 
this  life.  The  conflict,  then,  of  the  present  day,  at  which 
many  laugh  ;  of  which  many  more  take  no  notice  ;  others 
put  aside  as  an  inconvenient  interference  with  the  business 
of  life,  is  another  recurrence  of  the  conflict  of  all  time 
between  Rationalism  and  Faith.  I  place  Rationalism  first, 
because  it  is  the  Rationalism  of  man  that  has  provoked 
the  recurrence.  It  has  arisen  now  under  special  circum- 
stance of  distress  and  fear,  both  from  the  character  and 
position  ot  those  promoting  it  and  from  the  general  loose 

p 


2IO 

temper  of  the  time  ;  lastly  and  most  unhappily  from  the 
absence  of  the  living  Voice  of  the  Church  of  England. 
The  Diocesan  Voice  of  our  Bishop  is,  God  be  thanked, 
plain  and  clear  and  powerful,  as  also  that  of  the  Bishop 
of  an  adjoining  Diocese ;  but  the  living  Voice  of  the 
Church  of  the  Province  is  not  heard.  As  one  of  its 
Priests,  not  now  for  the  first  time  very  closely  concerned 
with  conflicts  of  a  like  character,  though  by  no  means, 
I  submit  to  your  consideration,  of  one  so  dangerous,  as  that 
now  upon  us,  I  must  endeavour  to  state  distinctly  what 
Rationalism  is.  I  am  citing  for  this  purpose  words  not  all 
my  own,  but  which  appear  to  me  to  be  incontrovertible. 

"  To  Rationalise  is  to  ask  for  reasons  out  of  place ;  to 
ask  improperly  how  we  are  to  account  for  certain  things ; 
to  be  unwilling  to  believe  them  unless  they  can  be  ac- 
counted for  ;  referred,  that  is,  to  something  else  as  a  cause, 
to  some  existing  system  as  harmonising  with  them,  or 
taking  them  up  into  itself.  Again,  since,  whatever  is 
assigned  as  the  reason  for  the  original  fact  stated,  admits 
in  turn  of  a  like  question  being  raised  about  itself,  unless, 
it  be  at  once  ascertainable  by  the  senses,  and  be  the 
subject  of  personal  experience,  Rationalism  is  bound  to 
pursue  onward  its  course  of  investigation  on  this  principle, 
and  not  to  stop  till  it  can  directly  or  ultimately  refer  to 
itself,  as  a  witness,  whatever  is  offered  to  its  acceptance. 
Thus  Rationalism  is  characterised  by  two  peculiarities  : 
its  love  of  systematising,  and  its  basing  its  system  upon 
personal  experience,  on  the  evidence  of  sense." 

In  both  respects  it  stands  opposed  to  Faith,  or  belief 
in  Testimony,  for  which  it  deliberately  substitutes  System, 
or  what  is  popularly  called  Reason  and  Sight. 

To  act  the  Rationalist,  then,  the  mind  must  be  more 
or  less  in  an  unsound  or  unhealthy  state  ;  that  is,  must  be 
unduly  set  more  or  less,  unduly  set  upon  "accounting  for" 
what  is  offered  for  its  acceptance.  I  say  unduly,  because 
it  is  not  the  duty  of  man,  in  the  presence  of  the  Revelation 
of  God,  to  let  Reason  range  over  the  whole  of  the  Province 
of  the  Creation  of  God  ;  but,  on   the  contrary,  it  is  the 


2ir 

highest  exercise  of  Reason  to  confine  itself  strictly  within 
the  limits  which  His  Providence  has  assigned  to  it.  If 
it  be  asked,  how  are  these  limits  to  be  known  to  man,  the 
answer  is  plain  and  simple.  The  question  before  me 
carries  with  it  its  solution,  that  insight  into  the  Mysteries 
of  God,  which  are  in  one  form  or  another  before  us  in 
every  page  of  the  Book  of  God,  is  not  within  the  grasp  of 
the  Reasoning  Power  on  this  side  of  the  grave.  Do  what 
I  will,  search  as  I  may,  I  find  I  can  come  no  nearer  than 
I  am  to  the  solution  of  any  one  of  the  Mysteries  of  God  ; 
this  is  what  every  man  who  tries  to  invent  (Psalm  xcix.  8, 
cvi.  29 — 39  ;  Ecclesiastes  vii.  29)  a  Providence  other  than 
that  Revealed  has  to  confess  to  himself.  Here  what  we 
are  called  to  is  to  receive,  accept,  obey  :  to  know  is  for  the 
hereafter.  "  Now  I  know  in  part,  but  then  shall  I  know 
even  as  also  I  am  known,"  are  the  words  even  of  him  who 
was  "  caught  up  to  the  third  heaven." 

In  all  this  there  is  no  word  or  thought  against  the  entire 
freedom  of  exercise  of  Reason  within  its  own  province. 
Nay,  it  is  our  duty  to  exercise  that  freedom  as  best  we  may 
by  our  own  power  and  others'  help.  To  seek  within  that 
Province  for  answer  to  inquiry  and  solution  of  reasonable 
doubt,  this  is  part  of  the  nature  that  God  has  given  us.  It 
is  only  when  we  begin  to  travel  out  of  the  Province  of 
Reason  into  the  Province  of  the  Mysteries  of  God,  and  set 
up  our  lawful  mode  and  system  of  knowledge  as  the  one 
sufficing  test  of  the  credibility  of  the  testimony  which  is 
not  only  above  us,  but  beyond  our  grasp — yes,  beyond 
our  touch — that  we  "  find  ourselves  in  wandering  mazes 
lost,"  and  if  we  do  not  in  the  Mercy  of  God  in  CJirist, 
recover  by  repentance  and  faith  our  footing  in  the  narrow 
way  that  leads  to  the  strait  gate,  we  lose  the  portion  allotted, 
the  place  prepared  for  us  within  the  gate  :  we  shall  have 
allowed  ourselves  to  become  here  the  prey  of  Rationalism. 
Presuming  to  say  "  We  see,  our  sin  remaineth." 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  there  are  instances  in  Holy  Scrip, 
ture  in  which  Rationalism  is  the  outcome  of  ignorance 
of  God,  of  His  Power,  of  His  Providence,  e.g. — 

P  2 


212 

When  the  rich  Lord  in  Samaria  said,  "  Behold  if  the 
Lord  would  make  windows  in  heaven,  might  this  thing- 
be"  (2  Kings  vii.  2),  he  rationalised,  as  stating  his  disbelief 
in  Elisha's  prophecy;  and  so  resting  in  his  disbelief.  In 
like  manner,  Naaman  refusing  to  bathe  in  Jordan  because 
he  could  not  see  why  Jordan  was  better  than  the  rivers  of 
Damascus.  These  are  instances  of  ignorance  of  God, 
His  Power  and  His  Providence,  issuing  in  Rationalism. 
This  ifrnorance  iti  as  becomes  a  sin.     In  them  in  one  case 

o 

it  was  punished  as  foretold,  in  the  other  forgiven  upon 
change  of  purpose. 

Turn  to  the  Holy  Gospels.  The  case  of  Nicodemus — 
*'  How  can  these  things  be  }  "  Of  the  Capernaites — "  How 
can  this  man  give  us  His  flesh  to  eat }  "  Of  St.  Thomas, 
refusing  to  accept  the  testimony  of  the  other  Apostles  (St. 
Mark  xvi.  4)  because  he  was  not  there,  and  had  not  seen 
and  touched. 

What  the  magnitude  of  the  sin  is  in  us  is  easily  gathered 
from  our  earliest  record  of  Creation  and  Providence 
(Genesis  iii.  i — 7).  We  read  there  of  its  first  suggestion, 
and  of  the  fatal  power  of  its  triumph.  The  Tempter  drew 
near  to  Eve  to  sow  the  seeds  of  doubt  in  her  mind  about 
what  God  had  said — "Yea,  hath  God  said?" — and  he 
followed  it  up  by  argument  addressed  to  her  Reason  as 
capable  of  judging  and  deciding  between  God  and  herself. 
The  Tempter  persuaded.  Reason  expelled  Faith.  Men 
fell  away  from  the  Grace  of  God. 

In  like  manner,  when  we  ask  how  prayer  can  influence 
the  course  of  God's  Providence,  or  how  everlasting  punish- 
ment consists  with  God's  mercy,  we  rationalise. 

The  same  temper  of  mind  shows  itself  about  the  stop- 
ping of  the  sun  at  the  bidding  of  Joshua.  Note  here  that 
when  in  the  day  of  Hezekiah  a  like  miracle  is  recorded 
(c.  xxxviii.  vv.  4 — 8),  it  is  expressly  stated  to  have  been 
the  work  of  God  Himself — "  the  bringing  again  the 
shadow  of  the  degrees  which  is  gone  down  in  the  sun- 
dial of  Ahaz  ten  degrees  backward."  And,  indeed,  this 
is   no  more  than   is  distinctly  implied  in  Joshua  x.    14, 


213 

by  the  words  that  "  The  Lord  hearkened  unto  the  voice 
of  a  man."  How  the  manna  was  provided,  and  the  like ; 
forgetting,  or,  rather,  putting  away,  what  our  Lord  said 
to  the  Sadducees,  "Ye  do  err,  not  knowing  the  Scrip- 
tures, nor  the  power  of  God." 

In  sum,  then,  Rationalism  is  a  denial  of  God's  Power — 
disbelief  of  the  existence  of  a  First  Cause  ;  in  itself  suf- 
ficing to  account  for  any  events,  facts,  particulars,  however 
extraordinary  or  out  of  keeping,  as  men  allow  themselves 
to  say,  with  a  Book  of  God.  It  is,  consequently,  a  mea- 
suring of  the  credibility  of  a  record  claiming  to  be  Divine, 
not  by  the  Power  and  other  attributes  of  God,  but  by  our 
own  finite  knowledge.  It  is  the  limiting  of  the  possible 
by  the  seen  and  known.  It  is  the  denying  the  infinite 
range  of  the  works  and  the  operation  of  God  wheresoever 
they  are  beyond  the  power  of  our  Reason  to  apprehend 
them. 

Hume,  the  English  historian,  openly  avows  the  prin- 
ciple of  Rationalism,  and  pursues  it  to  its  one  inevitable 
issue.  He  declares  it  to  be  unphilosophical  to  suppose 
that  the  Almighty  God  can  do  anything  but  what  we  see 
that  He  does.  Rationalists  no  doubt,  in  many  cases,  when 
they  are  not  what  is  now  called  "  advanced,"  shrink  from 
the  conclusion  at  which  Mr.  Hume's  Philosophy  lands 
itself,  which  is  Atheism.  But  the  premises,  once  admitted, 
land  the  Rationalist  in  that  conclusion,  upon  his  own  rule 
of  the  supremacy  of  Reason,  however  he  may  seek  to 
escape. 

Hence  it  is  that  the  thing  really  terrible,  and  forced  now 
upon  the  English  mind,  is  the  temptation  to,  and  the 
common  tendency  of,  so  many  minds  to  enter  upon  a  path 
of  doubting  and  questioning,  which  has  two  issues  only — 
one,  the  abuse  and  utter  confusion  of  the  thinking  power 
till  it  rest  in  unbelief ;  two,  the  discarding  of  Testimony, 
not  human  only,  but  Divine. 

In  the  Rationalist,  then,  Reason,  taking,  as  it  were,  its 
revenge  upon  itself,  becomes  un-Reason  ;  and  "  The  wis- 
dom of  this  world  is  foolishness  with  God." 


214 

What,  I  repeat,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  truth  and 
highest  exercise  of  Reason  ?  It  is  the  teaching  every  man 
that,  in  the  presence  of  God  and  His  Mysteries,  there  is 
one  lesson — one  lesson  only — for  him  to  hear,  and  that  is — 
to  bow  his  head  to  hear,  his  mind,  heart,  and  hand  to  obey  ; 
to  be  thankful  for  being  able  to  know  now  in  part  ;  to 
hope,  with  the  hope  that  maketh  not  ashamed,  to  know 
hereafter  ever  as  he  is  known. 

We  are  forced  upon  these  considerations  by  the  facts  of 
our  own  life  and  experience.  It  is  a  warning  from  God 
to  us  that  we  give  not  up  ourselves  to  the  power  of  "  the 
pride  of  life,"  I  say  that  it  is  a  warning  to  us  that  we  find 
ourselves,  suddenly,  and  contrary  to  all  reasonable  ex- 
pectation, so  little  troubled  or  even  disturbed  by  the 
active  presence  amongst  us  of  the  seductive  power  of 
the  Rationalistic  agency.  Poison  is  being  mixed  with 
our  daily  bread,  and  we  flatter  ourselves  that  it  is  no 
poison  to  us.  By  the  fact  of  this  self-confidence  we  are 
robbing  ourselves  of  our  one  security,  and  we  say  to  those 
among  whom,  we  live  that  there  is  no  cause  for  fear  ;  that 
there  is  no  special  call  upon  us  to  sound  more  deeply  the 
depths  of  our  conscience  ;  to  examine  and  search  out 
ourselves  more  carefully  than  we  have  done  in  respect  of 
our  own  faithful  and  implicit  acceptance  of  all  "  Holy 
Scripture  ;  "  of  the  only  record  in  our  hands,  placed  there 
by  the  Providence  of  God,  making  known  to  man — 
through  men's  hands,  but  by  Inspiration  of  God — all  that 
is  known  as  certainly  true  of  The  Creator  and  His 
Created,  of  Life  and  Innocence,  of  Sin  and  Death,  of 
Redemption  and  Hope  of  Heaven,  of  Grace  given  that, 
for  the  sake  of  Him  Who  died  and  rose  again  for  us  to 
assure  us  of  the  life  that  knows  no  death,  and  to  guide  us 
by  the  Spirit  along  the  narrow  way  to  the  strait  gate — we 
shall  come  to  Heaven. 

I  have  dealt  as  I  could  with  the  Preface  to  all  editions 
of  "  Lux  Mundi."  That  Preface  contains  the  germ  of 
Essay  VIII.;  the  Essay  of  the  Editor,  and  of  that  which  is 


215 

stated  by  him  to  have  the  general  concurrence  of  the 
other  contributors  to  the  book.  It  can  only  be  briefly 
that  I  touch  here  upon  Essay  VIII.  But  some  chief 
points  I  may  not  omit  to  refer  to. 

The  contention  against  "  Lux  Mundi "  being  a  con- 
tention (i)  for  the  Divine  Authority  of  all  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, (2)  for  the  perfect  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Sa- 
viour Jesus  Christ,  inherent  in  His  Godhead  ;  "  Lux 
Mundi  "  denies  both.  I  am  unable  to  find  room  for  the 
denial  wherein  a  man  holding  the  Catholic  Faith  can 
place  his  foot.  It  follows  by  necessary  consequence  that 
I  affirm  of  "  Lux  Mundi  " — that  it  teaches  what  is  form- 
ally and  primarily  contrary  to  the  Doctrine  of  the  Church 
of  England. 

This  was  the  conclusion  to  which  I  came  upon  my  first 
reading  of  the  Preface  to  all  the  Editions,  and  of  the 
Essay  of  the  Editor,  No.  VIII.  It  was  as  plain  to  me 
then  as  it  has  continued  to  be  ever  since  after  repeated 
recurrence  both  to  Preface  and  to  Essay,  and  to  expla- 
nations of  them  offered. 

In  his  Essay  the  Editor  appears  to  be  so  enamoured  of 
the  rights  of  Reason,  as  to  make  all  Religion  to  originate 
in,  and  depend  upon,  its  exercise  ;  and  to  define  the  na- 
ture of  that  exercise  in  every  case  without  stopping  to 
consider  that,  supposing  for  a  moment  his  system  to  be 
in  itself  right  (we  will  allow  to  be  possible  for  argument's 
sake),  it  is  wholly  of  impossible  application.  I  am  re- 
ferring to  pp.  337-B,  and  cite  words  from  them. 

"In  order  to  have  grounds  for  believing  the  facts  (the 
facts  of  the  New  Testament  Record),  in  order  to  be 
susceptible  of  their  evidence,  we  require  an  antecedent 
state  of  conception  and  expectation.  A  whole  set  of  pre- 
suppositions about  God,  about  the  slavery  of  sin,  about 
the  reasonableness  of  Redemption  must  be  present  with 
us.  So  only  can  the  facts  presented  to  us  in  the  Gospel 
come  to  us  as  credible  things,  or  as  parts  of  an  intelligible 
universe,  correlated  elements  in  a  rational  whole." 

The  Editor,  in  addition  to  this  dogmatic  announcement 


2l6 

of  what  is  universally  required  by  way  of  preparation  for 
belief  in  the  Gospel  Record,  puts  out  of  mind — out  of 
sight — that  what  he  is  here  claiming  for  Reason  is  exactly 
what  the  mind  of  man,  when  first,  and  ever  since,  exposed 
to  the  temptation  to  doubt  God — that  is,  before  and  after 
the  Fall — has  been  primarily  tempted  to  claim  for  himself 
against  God.  Further  still,  that  the  Fall  itself  is  identified 
for  all  time  with  the  undue  exercise  of  Reason,  and  the 
awful  punishment  of  it  inflicted  upon  the  world  for  all  its 
time. 

But  no  consideration  of  this  kind  appears,  in  his  own 
case,  to  interfere  with  the  working  of  his  theory  that  in 
every  case  what  everyone  has  first  to  decide,  after  deepest 
inquiry,  is  what  that  is  which  faith  has  to  accept  ;  and 
that  then,  but  not  till  then,  the  man  is  in  the  position 
to  cry,  "  Lord,  I  believe." 

Upon  this  the  question  arises,  that,  supposing  for  a 
moment  such  a  path  to  belief  to  be  possible  for  the 
"  highly  educated  "  man  of  full  age,  what  is  to  become  of 
himself  meantime,  and  of  all  children  and  young  people? 
They  must  wait  among  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men 
till  they  can  satisfy  all  the  antecedent  conditions  of 
reason  before  they  can  say,  "  Lord,  I  believe."  Whether 
then  they  are  to  append  "  Help  Thou  mine  Unbelief" 
does  not  appear. 

If  it  be  answered  that  the  preliminary  supposition  refers 
not  to  individual  souls  but  to  the  Church  (though  it  is 
not  so  said  in  the  passage  cited),  then  it  is  not  Reason, 
but  parental  and  school  care  and  teaching,  home  and 
other  example  and  persuasion,  much  more  moral  than 
intellectual,  which  makes  the  facts  of  the  Gospel  credible 
to  us  in  our  early  life.  It  is  with  the  heart  that  we  believe 
unto  righteousness.  Either  way  the  passage  in  the  Essay 
very  curiously  is  an  answer  to  itself ;  and  the  charge 
against  it  remains  where  it  was,  and  where  Holy  Scripture 
places  it  in  its  instruction  to  Parents  about  the  training  of 
their  children.  The  Charge,  I  say,  remains  against  the 
surrender  of  faith  to  the  Critical  power  of  the  Philosopher, 


217 

the  Scientist,  the  Literary  Critic  for  every  successive  gene- 
ration down  to  the  end  of  time. 

For  sacred  history,  Essay  VIII.  limits  this  to  "  from 
Abraham  downwards"  (three  times  repeated,  pp.  351-2). 
Large  distinctions  are  drawn  by  the  Editor  between  Books 
of  the  Bible,  and  separate  characters  assigned  to  them  ;  this 
is  done  again  assumptively  and  dogmatically,  but  upon  no 
authority.  It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  reason  for  this 
except  that  of  comparative  depreciation  before  man's 
reason  of  the  Divine  Authority  of  portions  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures ;  and  the  call  upon  Reason  to  pass  its  own 
judgment  in  the  matter,  e.g. — The  Song  of  Solomon  is  of 
the  nature  of  a  drama,  its  authorship  settled  to  be  not  of 
Solomon.  The  Book  of  Job  merely  dramatic.  The  au- 
thorship of  Deuteronomy  and  of  Ecclesiastes  more  than 
questioned.  For  Jonah,  Daniel,  "  Criticism  asks  us  to  go 
fartherl'  and  regard  them  as  "  dramatic  compositions, 
worked  up  on  a  basis  of  history."  "  It  is  maintained, 
then,"  says  the  Editor,  "  that  the  Church  leaves  open  to 
literary  Criticism  the  question  whether  several  of  the 
writings  of  the  Old  Testament  are,  or  are  not,  dramatic," 
pp.  351-2.  Again,  p.  357,  "Are  not  its  earlier  narratives, 
those  of  Jewish  history  before  the  call  of  Abraham,  of  the 
nature  of  myth,  in  which  we  cannot  distinguish  the  histo- 
rical germ,  though  we  do  not  at  all  deny  that  it  exists?" 
Why  not  say  at  once  of  the  nature  of  Fable  ? — "Mythicus," 
i.e.,  Fabulous.  Note  that  all  this  about  "myth"  and 
"  drama "  is  spoken  of  Creation,  the  Fall,  the  promise  of 
Redemption,  the  casting  out  of  Paradise,  the  Sacramental 
character  of  the  Tree  of  Life,  Enoch,  Noah,  the  Flood. 
What  the  "profound  air  of  historical  truthfulness  "  may  be 
which  pervades,  in  contradistinction,  the  Old  Testament 
record  "from  Abraham  downwards"  is  left  in  the  as- 
sumption so  common  in  the  Editor's  writing.  But  the 
words  carry  with  them  a  deep  and  terrible  significance. 

I  submit  here  that  readers  of  "  Lux  Mundi,"  labouring 
to  grasp  its  meanings,  ought  to  have  been  told  what  is  the 
precise  nature  of  "the  historical  germ" — a  term  introduced 


2l8 

here,  in  the  greatest  of  all  cases,  as  one  which  it  is  as- 
sumed everybody  understands,  and  which,  whatever  it 
may  comprise,  is  relied  upon  by  the  Editor  to  establish 
a  distinction  between  the  first  eleven  chapters  of  Genesis, 
and  the  remainder  of  the  Book.  Whatever  then  this  pre- 
cise nature  may  be  explained  to  be,  it  is  employed  for  the 
construction  of  a  theory  destructive  of  the  unity  of  Genesis, 
with  little  reverence  towards  God,  the  Author  and  Giver 
of  all  Holy  Scripture.  The  profound  air  of  "  historical 
truthfulness"  attaching  to  the  Book  "from  Abraham 
downwards "  is  contrasted  with  "  the  doubtful  air  of 
historical  truthfulness"  implied  in  the  Editor's  words,  "In 
particular,  are  not  its  earlier  narratives  {i.e.,  the  narratives 
of  Holy  Scripture)  before  the  call  of  Abraham,  of  the 
nature  of  myth,  in  which  we  cannot  distinguish  the  his- 
torical germ,  though  we  do  not  at  all  deny  that  it  exists." 
The  entire  passage,  coupled  with  the'  myth  and  drama 
interlude,  is  full  of  deepest  distress  throughout,  and  of 
much  disturbing  and  shaking  the  faith  of  men  in  the 
Divine  Authority  of  the  Basis  of  all  Holy  Scripture. 

Again,  for  Inspiration. 

For  Inspiration — we  read,  p.  355  {U) — "we  find  all  soi-ts 
of  literature  in  the  Inspired  Volume."  It  is  not  said  how 
this  has  become  the  knowledge  of  the  Editor  who  dog- 
matically pronounces  it.  There  is  no  trace  of  it  in  the 
Bible.  The  Bible  presents  its  several  Books  to  us  as  the 
Church  has  been  "  guided  "  of  the  Spirit  to  present  them. 
Some  for  "establishment  of  Doctrine,"  others  for  "ex- 
ample of  life  and  instruction  of  manners ; "  all  alike  as 
coming  from  God,  written  by  man  moved  by  the  Spirit. 
This  is  told  us  distinctly  in  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  from 
whom  it  clearly  appears  to  be  derived.  "  But  continue 
thou  in  the  things  which  thou  hast  learned  and  hast  been 
assured  of,  knowing  of  whom  thou  hast  learned  them  ;  and 
that  from  a  child  thou  hast  known  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation  through 
faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  All  Scripture  is  given  by 
Inspiration    of  God,   and    is    profitable    for   doctrine,    for 


219 

reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness  ; 
that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect  (or,  'perfected'), 
throughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works"  (2  Timothy  iii. 

14-17). 
The  New  Criticism  calls  the  Bible  "a  literature;"  no 

doubt  if  "literature"  means  a  "book"  the  Bible  is  a 
literature.  But  it  has  its  differentia  from  all  other  litera- 
tures in  being  The  One  Book  of  God,  containing  by 
Revelation  all  that  man  can  ever  know  on  this  side  the 
grave  of  His  relations  to  man,  and  of  man's  relations  to 
Him.     This  seems  to  have  escaped  the  logic  of  "Lux 

Mundi." 

The  Editor,  p.  349,  n,  8,  9,  10,  gives  us  his  rendering  of 
the  Greek  as  we  have  it  in  our  Greek  Testament.  It  is 
impossible  to  reconcile  that  rendering  with  the  Greek  as  it 
stands.  As  rendered  by  the  Editor,  it  amounts  only  to 
this— every  Scripture,  if  from  God,  is  profitable,  &c.,  &c. 
This  may  answer  the  Editor's  purpose,  but  it  is  a  tautology 
only  ;  and,  I  cannot  hesitate  to  say  it,  reads  very  like  "  the 
presumptuous  sin." 

If  I  add  here  that  I  recommend  any  one  who  has  any 
doubts  about  the  Inspiration  of  all  Holy  Scripture  to  read 
the  Editor's  argument,  pp.  337-3^1,  it  is  only  because 
I  believe  that  it  will  be  of  great  service  to  him  to  see 
of  what  character  that  argument  is.  It  will  be  found 
throughout  to  be  of  the  assumptive  and  yet  dogmatic 
character  ;  also  of  that  of  leaving  the  mind  in  confusion 
about  its  issue,  coupled  with  much  fear  of  what  that  issue 
may  probably  be. 

Included  in  the  above  pages  is  the  Editor's  argument 
against  the  perfect  —  what  may  truly  be  called  "the 
eternal— knowledge  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  God  and  Man— Perfect  God  and  Perfect  Man."  It 
is  like  his  other  reasoning,  assumptive  and  dogmatic.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  comes  very  close  to  a  denial  of  the 
Incarnation.  Bear  with  me,  dear  people  in  Christ,  when 
I  say  that  it  has  long  appeared  to  me  that  there  is  a  large 
and  increasing  amount  of  the  Socinian  Element  amongst 


220 

US  here  in  England.  Certain  it  is  that  the  denial  of  the 
perfect  knowledge  of  our  Lord  when  upon  Earth  is  em- 
ployed by  the  book  "  Lux  Mundi "  in  order  to  the  dis- 
paragement of  His  testimony  to  all  the  Old  Scriptures, 
"  Search  the  Scriptures,  for  in  them  ye  think  ye  have 
eternal  life,  and  they  are  they  which  testify  of  Me." 
"  The  Scriptures."  Here  is  no  exception,  no  distinction, 
no  comparison  of  one  Scripture  with  another.  It  is  the 
Book  of  God  throughout — not  the  book  which  man  doubts 
about,  as  if  he  had  nothing  better  to  do  with  his  little  life 
than  to  be  Criticising  always,  and  then  to  die. 

It  is  not  possible  to  omit  here  reference  to  certain 
language  in  "  Lux  Mundi,"  applied  to  the  Eternal  and 
Infinite  God. 

"  The  abyss  of  Divine  disappointment." — Essay  I.,  p.  19. 
"  It  is  here  that  the  Divine  Spirit  has  found  His  chiefest 
disappoijitjnent. — Essay  VIII.,  p.  319. 

"The  Divine  Spirit  again  and  again  'baffled'  in  the 
body  of  the  Jewish  nation." — p.  320. 

Are  the  words  "-disappointment"  and  ''baffled"  words 
that  may  be  applied  to  the  Eternal  and  the  Infinite  ?  If  so 
applied,  is  not  this  to  apply  the  same  measure  to  the  finite 
knowledge  and  power  of  man,  and  to  the  knowledge  and 
power  of  the  Eternal  and  Infinite  God  ?  Is  not,  again, 
the  act  of  so  applying  to  play  with  words  that  have  no 
meaning?  There  is  no  disappointment  where  all  is  Omni- 
science and  time  is  not.  There  is  no  baffling  where  all  is 
Almighty.  Again,  to  attempt  to  illustrate  or  explain  the 
application  by  what  God  says  of  Himself — of  His  "  re- 
penting " — is  simply  foolish.  The  Promises  of  the  Mer- 
cies of  God  are  made  upon  His  own  conditions  of  re- 
pentance, faith,  obedience.  Where  these  are  no  more 
found  of  Him,  the  promises  cease.  Where  there  was 
repentance,  again,  "  The  Lord  repented  according  to  His 
Mercies  "  (Ps.  cvi.  45).  This  is  the  "  Repentance  "  of  God  in 
the  Book  of  God  (Judges  ii.  18).  The  obedience  ceases, 
the  Mercy  ceases ;  the  obedience  returns  ;  as  God  sees  fity 
the  mercy  returns.     Look  at  Eli,  Saul,  David,  Solomon. 


221 


Was  God  "  disappointed?  "  was  God  "  baffled?  "  Nay, 
but,  O  man,  do  not  go  about  to  measure  the  Creator  by 
His  Creature — His  knowledge  by  man's  ignorance — His 
power  by  man's  weakness.  There  is  nothing  more  dan- 
gerous to  true  ReHgion  than  the  conceit  of  familiarity 
with  the  unseen  and  unknown,  which  issues  in  language 
natural  as  applied  by  man  to  man  ;  unnatural  and  revolt- 
ing as  applied  by  man  to  the  Eternal  and  the  Infinite. 

"  Ye  are  my  witnesses,  saith  the  Lord." 

It  is  the  second  text  of  this  sermon.  I  will  condense 
into  briefest  space  what  I  have  to  say  upon  the  words  of 
God  to  us  by  His  Prophet. 

First,  then,  if  these  be  words  spoken  of  God  to  the 
Church  of  the  Jews,  and  to  every  member  of  it,  how  much 
more  are  they  spoken  to  the  Catholic  Church  of  Christ 
and  to  every  member  of  it.     "  Ye  are  my  witnesses,  saith 

the  Lord." 

Secondly,  what  is  that  to  which  every  member  of  the 
Church  is  a  witness  for  God  ? 

He  is  a  witness  to  the  Being  of  God  ;  to  His  Revela- 
tion of  Himself  to  man  as  contained  in  all  "  Holy  Scrip- 
ture," to  Creation, to  man's  "original  righteousness,"  to  his 
Fall  under  temptation  ;  to  the  Promise  of  Redemption  by 
the  seed  of  the  woman  ;  to  the  preparation  by  the  Provi- 
dence of  God  for  the  fulfilment  of  that  Promise  ;  to  its  ful- 
filment ;  to  the  one  way  to  the  inheritance  of  the  Promise. 

What  is  that  one  way  ?  It  is  the  way  of  faith  ?  "  We 
walk  by  faith,  and  not  by  sight."  We  are,  every  one  of  us, 
upon  our  trial.  It  is  the  sum  and  the  condition  of  accept- 
ance under  every  trial,  that  we  walk  by  faith  and  not  by 
sight.  That  we  may  humbly  and  profitably  meditate 
upon  the  Mysteries  of  God  ;  but  may  not  attempt  to 
interpret  what  is  not  given  to  our  nature  here  to  under- 
stand. 

The  trial  of  man  redeemed  in  this  primary  matter  of 
walking  by  faith,  and  not  by  sight,  is  conterminous  with 
Revelation.     Where  there  is  most  of  human  learning,  and 


222 

that  dependence  upon  self  which  it  is  apt  and  wont  to 
[generate  and  foster,  then  the  trial  is  the  most  severe,  and 
most  issuing  in  the  walk  by  sight,  and  not  by  faith  ;  in 
man's  walking  by  his  own  intelligence  or  that  of  others, 
rather  than  by  the  teaching  of  Holy  Scripture  ;  forgetting, 
or  rather  refusing  to  see  that,  "  though  the  ways  of  man  are 
before  the  eyes  of  the  Lord"  (Prov.  v.  21),  the  ways 
of  the  Lord  are  not  before  the  eyes  of  man. 

To  make,  therefore,  "  the  intelligible,"  the  needful  pre- 
liminary to  "  the  faithful,"  which  is  the  expression  of  the 
primary  teaching  of  "  Lux  Mundi  "  (in  teaching  which  the 
general  concurrence  of  all  the  waiters  in  the  book  is 
stated  by  the  Editor),  is  to  reverse  the  order  of  the  Provi- 
dence of  God. 

Rather,  oh  how  much  rather,  let  us  be  content,  in  this, 
our  portion  of  "  the  last  days  " — yea,  more  than  content, 
ever  thankful — we  "  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  are 
come,"  to  be  humble  witnesses  to  God,  walking  by  faith, 
and  not  by  sight  ;  and  to  learn  from  The  Transfiguration 
to  shrink  with  shrinking  too  deep  for  words  from  every 
temptation  of  "  the  pride  of  life  "  moving  our  hearts  and 
minds  to  assign  limits,  in  the  day  of  His  humiliation,  to 
the  knowledije  of  The  Eternal  Son. 


SERMON    III. 

Preached  in  Wells  Cathedral,  Sunday,  Nov.  8,  i8gi. 


EZEKIEL  xiv,   14. 

"  Though  these  three  jfien,  Noah,  Daniel,  and  Job,  were  in  it^ 
they  should  deliver  but  their  own  souls  by  their  righteousness, 
saith  the  Lord  God  ;^' — Revelation  ii.  7 — "71?  him  that  over- 
cometh  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  life  which  is  in  the  midst 

'■    of  the  Paradise  of  God.''^ 

These  texts  of  "  Holy  Scripture,"  the  Old  Scripture 
and  the  New,  have  an  exceptional  character.  The  first 
is  repeated  four  times  in  Ezekiel  ;  again — "  The  Tree 
of  Life,"  three  times  in  Genesis  ;  three  times  in  "  The 
Revelation."  "To  him  that  overcometh,"  eight  times 
in  "  The  Revelation."  They  bind  together  by  a  chain 
that  cannot  be  broken  the  Old  Scriptures  and  the  New; 
the  Books  of  Moses,  "The  Man  of  God"  (ist  Chronicles 
xxiii.  14),  the  Books  of  the  Prophets,  the  Book  of  Revela- 
tion, the  Lord  of  the  Gospel  and  His  Evangelist,  the 
disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  and  showed  Himself  to  in  His 
glory.  It  is  all,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  one  and 
the  same  thing.  There  is  a  unity  throughout ;  measured 
out  into  its  parts  by  the  Divine  Wisdom,  as  is  best  for 
His  creatures,  and  committed  to  man  to  write  and 
bequeath  for  man  for  all  time  as  His  Word,  to  be  re- 
ceived in  humblest  thankfulness,  kept  in  truest  faithful- 
ness, obeyed  as  coming  from  a  Father  to  His  children, 
reverenced  as  a  sacred  thing,  loved  as  being  His  Record, 
a  Record  beginning,  continuing  throughout,  beginning, 
ending  with  unsearchable  mysteries — delivering  all  that 
is  good  for  the  saving  of  the  soul  for  Christ's  sake — re- 
quiring thereto  repentance,  faith,  love;  forbidding  all 
intrusion    of   Reason    into    the   Province    of    Revelation 


234 

(Dcut.  xxix.  29),  encouraging  the  use  of  Reason  wiihin 
its  own  Prcvince.  The  one  Record  of  the  relations  of 
God  to  man  and  of  man  to  God,  the  Record  that  God 
so  loved  the  "  World  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish, 
but  have  everlasting  life."  Day  by  day,  there  is  in  these 
places  of  Holy  Scripture  food  for  deepest  and  humblest 
meditation.  Man  cannot  look  on  this  side  the  grave 
into  the  mysteries  of  God.  That  is  reserved  for  those  for 
•whom  it  i.s  prepared  hereafter ;  but  by  meditating  upon 
them  and  their  historical  character  he  may  wonderfully 
cherish  and  improve  his  powers  of  perception,  and  of 
appropriating  unto  himself  the  requirements,  the  peace, 
the  rest,  the  hope  of  the  life  in  Christ. 

There  is  a  question  now  before  the  Church  of  England 
— perhaps  the  gravest  question  that  can  be  proposed 
to  a  Christian  man  —  whether  this  Record  has  to  be  left 
untouched  by  man,  as  it  has  been  delivered  to  the  Church 
Catholic  by  the  undivided  Church  guided  by  the  Spirit 
into  all  Truth  ;  or  whether  it  has  to  be  perpetually  re- 
considered throughout  all  time,  in  respect  of  its  Character 
and  Authority,  by  human  learning,  and  adjusted  to  the 
(so  called)  requirements  of  that  learning  by  "  The  New 
Criticism."  There  is  one  more  primary  question  of  like 
gravity — whether  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord,  in  respect 
of  the  Old  Scriptures,  was  a  fallible  or  an  infallible  know- 
ledge. These  are  the  two  great  problems  touching  The 
Faith  of  Christ  forced  upon  the  Church  of  England  by 
"The  New  Criticism." 

I  am  compelled  to  advert  again  in  this  sermon  to  the 
"  New  Criticism,"  by  the  text  from  Ezekiel  ;  and  here  it 
has  to  be  noted  carefully  that  the  prophet  is  delivering 
"  The  Word  of  the  Lord  V'  speaking  unto  him  of  "  Noah, 
Daniel,  Job  ;  "  and  that  any  manner  or  degree  of  doubt 
raised  about  them  is  not  only  doubt  of  the  prophet,  but 
doubt  about  the  Author  and  Giver  of  all  Prophecy. 

■  cxiv.  V.  12. 


225 

The  "  New  Criticism,"  in  its  discriminating  between 
Scripture  and  Scripture,  assigns  the  character  of  "  Myth  " 
to  the  eleven  first  chapters  of  Genesis,  containing  among 
many  other  primary  verities  the  history  of  Noah.  It  says 
that  "  the  historic  germ  "  is  not  easy  to  perceive  in  them. 
That  it  is  only  "  from  Abraham  downwards  (three  times 
repeated,  L.M.,  Essay  VI 1 1.,  pp.  35 1-2,  ed.  X.),  that  there 
is  a  profound  air  of  historical  truthfulness  pervading  the 
Old  Testament  Record."  What  "  the  historic  germ  "  may 
be  I  am  not  learned  enough  in  the  vocabulary  of  the  "  New 
Criticism  "  to  know.  But  the  passage,  even  without  it,  is 
full  of  unavoidible inferences  of  the  Rationalistic  character. 

Now,  the  eleven  first  chapters  of  Genesis  contain  all 
that  man  can  ever  know  on  this  side  the  grave  of  what  was 
before  the  Creation  ;  of  the  Creation  ;  of  the  Creation  of 
man  in  the  Image  of  God  ;  of  the  Fall  ;  the  Redemption  ; 
the  promise  of  victory  over  the  Tempter  ;  the  Mystery  of 
the  Tree  of  Life  ;  of  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  Good  and 
Evil  ;  of  Enoch  ;  of  Noah  and  his  righteousness  ;  of  thj; 
Flood  ;  of  the  dispersion  of  mankind.  In  few  words,  the 
eleven  chapters  are  the  one  foundation  of  the  Religion  of 
Christ ;  and  we  are  asked  to  accept  a  statement  that  there 
is  not  in  them  that  "profound  air  of  historical  truthful- 
ness "  which  we  begin  to  find  in  chap.  xii.  ;  that  "  the 
historic  germ  ''  may  exist,  but  that  it  is  not  easy  to  find. 
It  has  to  be  noted  here  that  the  cardinal  difference  be- 
tween the  eleven  first  chapters  of  Genesis  and  the  remain- 
ing chapters  is  assumed  ;  not  in  any  sense  attempted  to  be 
accounted  for,  after  the  manner  of  the  reasoning  of  "  Lux 
Mundi." 

The  same  thing,  mutatis  mutandis,  and  substituting 
"  drama  "  for  "  myth,"  is  to  be  observed  about  the  book  of 
Job,  viz.,  that  "  although  it  works  on  an  historical  basis,  it 
can  hardly  be  denied  to  be  mainly  dramatic." 

Again,  "  Criticism  goes  further,  and  asks  us  to  regard 
Jonah  and  Daniel  among  the  prophetic  books,  as  dramatic 
compositions,  worked  up  upon  a  basis  of  history." 

I  do  not  descend  to  argument  upon  the  language  of 

Q 


226 

these  passages.  I  have  something  to  say  upon  the  prin- 
ciple they  proceed  upon. 

That  principle  is  the  right  of  every  man's  reasoning 
power  to  discriminate  between  Scripture  and  Scripture. 
Let  it,  then,  be  carefully  borne  in  mind  that  all  such 
"discrimination"  involves  disparagement  of  Scripture  as 
against  Scripture  ;  disparagement  of  relative  authority. 
Indeed,  it  is  impossible  not  to  see  that  this  is  the  end 
proposed  to  be  attained  by  it  on  the  part  of  "  The  New 
Criticism." 

Where,  then,  is  the  authority  for  this  discrimination  by 
every  man,  as  he  pleases,  of  Scripture  from  Scripture — of 
one  part  of  the  Book  of  God  from  another  part  of  it  ? 
Every  man  !  I  say,  learned  and  unlearned  ;  there  is  no 
difference  between  them  in  this  matter.  It  is  the  same 
authority  which  is  required  in  both  cases  alike.  Learning 
is  not  given  to  enable  men  to  use  larger  licence  in  dealing 
with  heavenly  things  than  other  men. 

For  the  "  Old  Scriptures,"  then,  with  which  we  are  at 
present  concerned,  the  authority  was  not  of  the  individual 
man  at  all  ;  it  was  the  authority  called  the  Canon,  or 
Rule,  of  the  Jewish  Church  ;  which  settled  what  books  of 
the  Old  Scripture  were,  and  what  were  not,  "  The  Oracles 
of  God"  (Rom.  iii.  2).  The  Church  of  Christ  affirmed 
for  itself  this  authority  of  the  Jewish  Church,  "  guided," 
according  to  the  promise  of  Christ,  "into  all  Truth"  by 
the  Spirit  ;  and  added  in  God's  own  time,  being  then  the 
undivided  Church  of  Christ,  to  the  Canon  of  the  Jewish 
Church,  the  Canon  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  New 
Scriptures.  The  outcome  of  this  work  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  was,  and  is,  the  Bible  as  we  have  it  in  our  own 
tongue.  The  Bible  as  we  have  it,  and  as  it  will  remain 
until  the  end  of  time ;  "  The  New  Criticism,"  with  any 
other  like  "  invention "  of  man,  notwithstanding,  for 
all  those  who  by  grace,  inherited,  sought,  and  given,  hold 
it  fast,  and  do  not  make  it  the  plaything  of  their  un- 
Reason — that  is,  of  what  is  called  "  Rationalism." 

"  The  New  Criticism,"  of  our  day  is  an   eminent  and 


227 

unhappy  example  of  this  "  invention  "  of  un-Reason,  in 
conception,  process,  issue.  Eminent  because  it  is  the 
creation  of  eminent  men.  Unhappy  because  both  in  its 
process,  and  still  more  in  its  issue,  it  seeks  out,  allures, 
guides  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  high  and  low,  rich 
and  poor,  one  with  another,  to  wander  away  from  the  one 
sure  stay  of  peace  here  and  of  hope  for  hereafter  ;  from 
the  promises  and  the  work  of  God  by  the  Spirit,  for  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ's  sake,  and  to  put  into  their  place — Nothing. 
Nothing  but  that  thing  poor  indeed  in  comparison,  and 
having  nothing  in  it  of  the  substance  of  heavenly  hope, 
the  individual  reason. 

Now  closely  connected  with  the  discrimination  between 
Scripture  and  Scripture  by  the  individual  hand,  as  illus- 
trated under  the  head  of  Genesis  before  Abraham,  and 
"  from  Abraham  downwards,"  is  the  special  position  of 
Moses  amongst  the  Saints  of  God,  as  revealed  both  in  the 
Old  and  in  the  New  Scriptures,  It  would  take  a  long 
time  to  enumerate  the  particulars  of  that  special  position  ; 
and  any  one,  by  the  help  of  His  Concordance  under  the 
word  "  Moses,"  can  supply  the  enumeration  to  himself. 
There  is  no  other  such  position,  excepting  only  the 
Transfiguration  of  Christ,  in  all  Holy  Scripture  ;  not  even 
the  visions  of  the  Prophets  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel,  of  St. 
Paul,  and  St.  John. 

The  point,  then,  that  I  would  wish  to  press  upon  your 
attention  is,  that  the  special  position  of  Moses  among  the 
Saints  of  God,  as  set  forth  in  the  Old  and  in  the  New 
Scriptures,  is  of  that  very  awful  character  as  to  increase  to 
the  largest  possible  extent  the  responsibility  of  raising  any 
doubt  about  the  character  of  mystery  and  miracle  inherent 
in  it ;  apart  from  which  no  effort  of  human  reason  can  in- 
terpret it.  And  therein  about  the  genuineness  and  authen- 
ticity of  his  five  Books  ;  lastly,  and  much  more,  about 
ascribing  to  them  terms  of  disparagement  ;  and  this  more 
particularly  in  the  case  of  Genesis — because  it  is  Genesis, 
and  no  other  Book,  which  has  been,  or  ever  can  be,  that 
contains  the  beginning  of  all  things  belonging  to  man, 

Q2 


228 

and  the  foundation  of  all  rclii^ion  ;  and  that  it  is  upon  the 
eleven  first  chapters  of  Genesis  that  the  entire  building  of 
faith  rests. 

I  have,  therefore,  to  say  first,  with  reference  to  the  "  New 
Criticism,"  that  it  is  impossible  to  me  to  accept — that  it  is 
forbidden  to  me  to  accept  ^ — the  discriminating  of  Holy 
Scripture  from  Holy  Scripture,  beginning  with  Genesis  i. 
downwards  to  xii.,  into  Myth,  Drama,  History.  I  accept 
it  in  its  integrity  as  it  has  been  given  us  by  the  Church, 
guided  into  all  Truth  by  the  Spirit.  History,  Prophecy, 
The  Law,  The  Psalms,  The  Prophets  :  as  Fact ;  Mystery  ; 
Miracle.  I  accept  this,  as  I  have  twice  sworn  to  accept 
and  teach  it,  as  Deacon  and  Priest  of  the  Church  of 
England. 

I  am  here  compelled  to  say  that  the  "view"  of  Chris- 
tian obligation  set  forth  in  "  Lux  Mundi,"  and  which  I 
cannot  find  otherwise  represented  by  the  Editor  in  his 
Bampton  Lectures,  is  a  view  of  individual  responsibility — 
of  Church  responsibility  just  as  far,  and  no  more,  as  the 
individual  may  accept  that  responsibility :  and  this  for 
Bishops,  Priests,  People  in  common  :  for  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  Church  people — men,  women,  children  alike. 

It  is,  therefore,  nothing  else  than  a  view  and  scheme 
for  disintegration  of  the  Church.  It  is  a  new  Christianity 
proposed  at  the  close  of  century  XIX.  for  the  Church 
of  England.  TJic  ClmrcJi  of  England  in  the  Province  of 
Canterbitry  looks  on  and  says  no  word. 

I  have  now  further  to  say,  in  reference  to  what  is  called 
"the  rectified  Traditional  view  of  the  Old  Testament," 
that  is,  as  it  is  described,  the  Reasonable  view,  as  con- 
trasted with  "  the  Analytical  "  or  un-Reasonable  view — 
that  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  accept  this  basis  upon 
which  to  "fight  the  good  fight  of  faith;"  to  accept  the 
position  of  Moses  as  that  of  his  having  been  "  the  compiler 
of  his  record,  in  its  earliest  chapters,  from  primeval 
documents,  which  may  have   been  brought  by  Abraham 

''  Deut.  xxix.  29. 


229 

from  Chaldea ;  and,  in  its  later  chapters,  from  family- 
records  of  a  distinctly  contemporaneous- origin,  which  we 
may  reasonably  believe  to  have  been  preserved  in  the 
families  of  the  successive  patriarchs  as  the  archives  of 
the  race." 

I  submJt  humbly  that  this  view  (I  wish  it  might  be  that 
the  word  "  view  "  were  cast  out  from  among  us  in  relation 
to  the  things  of  God)  might  be  very  well  if  the  question 
were  about  some  nation's  history,  or  some  family  history, 
or  some  man's  history  ;  but  that,  if  taken  as  sufficient 
answer  to  the  Analytical  theory,  it  provokes  only  a  smile 
in  the  assailant,  and  a  tear  in  the  maintainer  of  the  Word 
of  God.  It  is  too  earthy.  It  is  too  "  reasonable,"  in  that 
sense  of  the  word  "reasonable,"  which  is  correlative  of 
that  part  of  Reason  which  is  not  Faith,  but  is  now 
labouring,  with  no  little  success,  to  take  to  itself  the 
place  of  Faith  besides  and  beyond  its  own  proper  place. 
It  is  out  of  this  usurpation  that  every  Heresy  of  the 
World  has  come. 

Reason  is  the  gift  of  God  whereby  man  is  enabled  to 
receive  Revelation.  But  it  is  a  special  form  of  Reason, 
called  Faith,  whereby  man  is  enabled,  in  humblest  thanks- 
giving as  before  God,  to  receive  Revelation,  unto  peace, 
rest,  hope,  here ;  unto  the  inheritance  in  Christ  of  Life 
Eternal. 

What  we  want  is  not  a  possible  "  compilation  of  prime- 
val documents  and  family  records  "  by  the  "  Man  of  God." 
It  would  appear  to  have  escaped  the  acumen  of  the 
"  discoverers  "  of  "  primeval  documents  "  and  "  family 
records"  that  Genesis  i.  1-26,  and  Genesis  ii.  5,  tell  us 
of  things  before  man  was  created.  Things  of  which 
knowledge  by  man  could  not  be,  save  only  by  Inspiration 
of  God.  What  we  want  is  the  world's  history  as  delivered 
in  the  Old  Scriptures  for  the  world,  by  the  Almighty 
God,  to  His  Prince  of  the  Saints ;  and  witnessed  to  as 
Truth  Eternal  by  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ 
in  the  New  Scriptures.  We  want  to  keep  whole  and 
undefiled  that  which    the    Church   of  England   has   kept 


230 

and  delivered  whole  and  undefiled  ;  yea,  and  will  deliver 
unto  the  end,  if  she  will  awake  and  arise  and  shake  off 
the  heavy  slumber  which  is  closing  so  many  eyes,  and 
dulling  so  many  hearts,  and  whispering  peace  where  there 
is  no  peace. 

Moses,  "  the  Man  of  God,"  was  twice  for  forty  days 
and  forty  nights  in  the  Mount  of  God.  Is  there  anything 
to  forbid  the  humble  believer  in  the  all-Directing  and 
all-Governing  Hand  of  God — is  there  anything  which 
does  not  encourage  us  to  believe  that  Moses  was  then 
inspired  of  God  to  write  Genesis  ?  That  it  was  then — 
is  it  not  a  thousand  times  more  reverent,  more  in  accord- 
ance with  all  his  history  in  life  and  death — that  he  was 
so  inspired.  We  shrink  from  the  "  compilation  of  prime- 
val documents  and  family  records" — we  want  something 
that  does  not  so  much  savour  of  earth,  to  teach  us  the 
Birth,  the  Death,  the  Fall,  the  Redemption  of  our  race  ; 
our  Birth,  our  Life,  our  Death,  our  sin  and  sorrow — 
our  hope  and  peace  and  joy  for  ever.  We  believe  that 
to  give  us  the  beginning  of  all  this  in  the  beginning 
of  the  Old  Scriptures,  as  the  fulfilment  of  it  all  in  the 
New,  there  was  delivered  unto  Moses,  the  Man  of  God 
(i  Chron.  xxiii.  14)  the  words  which  we  have  now  in  His 
name  telling  man  for  all  time  the  history  of  this,  our 
world ;  created,  filled  with  Light  and  Life,  Life  innocent. 
Life  walking  in  the  Light  of  the  Presence  of  God,  Life 
tempted,  deceived,  ruined,  cast  forth  from  Paradise, 
doomed  to  die  ;  Life  to  be  redeemed  for  all  who  would 
turn  to  God  by  the  Incarnation  and  the  Atonement  of 
the  Eternal  Son,  by  His  intercession  for  us  unworthy  ser- 
vants, miserable  sinners,  taking  unto  ourselves  the  Sword  of 
the  Spirit,  which  is  the  Word  of  God  ;  and  in  the  end,  for 
our  poor  repentance,  faith,  love,  sealed  by  the  Spirit 
with  the  seal  of  our  Baptism  ;  which,  alas !  may  have 
been  many  times  stained  and  dishonoured^  but  not  de- 
faced through  intercession  of  the  Spirit. 

It  has  become  necessary  to  say  here  as  follows. 

I  have   read    carefully  the   Bampton    Lectures    of  the 


231 

Editor  of  "  Lux  Mundi."  I  find  nothing  in  them  to 
relieve  me  from  the  distress  which  has  arisen  out  of 
the  doubts  cast  in  the  scheme  of  "Lux  Mundi,"  (i) 
upon  the  Divine  Integrity  and  Authority  of  the  Old 
Scriptures,  and  (2)  upon  the  unlimited,  i.e.,  infallible, 
knowledge  of  our  Blessed  Lord  in  respect  of  the  Old 
Scriptures. 

If  in  places  of  the  Lectures,  Beliefs  of  the  Church 
be  in  general  admitted,  the  admission  is  promptly  quaUfied 
by  exceptions  in  particulars,  so  that  the  doubt  engen- 
dered has  still  its  existence,  its  operation,  and  its  ad- 
vocacy. 

I  take  the  chief  example  of  my  meaning. 

Lecture  III.  is  headed  "The  Supernatural  Christ 
Historical ; "  and  its  corresponding  heading  is  "  The 
Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God." 

The  lecture  issues  in  the  full  affirmation  of  Belief 
in  the  Incarnation.  Lecture  IV.  is  the  sequel  of  Lecture 
III.,  issuing  in  like  affirmation  of  The  Creed  of  S. 
Athanasius.    So  far,  all  is  well. 

But  in  Lecture  VI.,  pp,  147,  150,  we  come  to  the 
limiting  of  the  Knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God  Incarnate. 

The  primary  ground  for  this  limiting  is  in  the  words, 
"  neither  the  Son,  but  the  Father." — S.  Mark  xiii.  32. 

There  are  what  the  Lecturer  terms  "corresponding 
indications  and  impressions "  of  "  a  limited  human  con- 
sciousness" in  The  Incarnate  Son,  in  other  parts  of  Holy 
Scripture. 

I  turn  away  from  these  "indications  and  impressions," 
for  which  there  is  no  authority  of  Divine  origin,  to  "  the 
primary  ground." 

Our  Lord  here  Himself  limits  Himself  Let  us  learn 
a  little  to  leave  His  mysteries  where  He  has  left  them  ; 
and  not  proceed  to  theorise  upon  them,  a  thing  which 
it  is  forbidden  us  to  do.  It  is  the  one  instance  of  the 
fact  of  limitation.     All  else  is  man's  "  invention." 

Now,  "  Lux  Mundi "  and  the  Bampton  Lectures  have 
extended  it  into    limitation   of  our  Lord's  knowledge  of 


232 

the  Old  Scriptures ;  and  the  outcome  of  this  is — that 
our  Lord,  in  His  teaching  citing  from  and  referring  to 
the  Old  Scriptures  in  more  than  500  places  in  the  Gospels, 
cited  from  and  referred  to  what — it  is  very  terrible  to 
have  to  add — He  knew  He  w-as  not  informed  upon — 
so  terrible,  beyond  all  words  to  express  them,  is  the 
beginning,  the  middle  and  the  end  of  the  attempt  to 
reduce  the  Mysteries  of  God  into  something  within  the 
Grasp  of  the  Reasoning  Power.  That  attempt  is  being 
made  now,  in  one  degree  or  another,  all  over  England 
and  outside  England. 

We  are  told  that  "  Christianity  became  metaphysical 
simply  and  only  because  man  is  rational." — B.  L.,  p.  21. 

Why  not  say  at  once  that,  because  man  is  rational, 
there  is  no  such  thing  remaining  as  "the  secret  things 
which  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God  ;  "  or,  if  there  be 
distinctions  to  be  taken  among  "  the  secret  things  "  where 
is  the  authority,  where  is  the  hand  to  make  them  ?  It 
is  said  again  (p.  21),  "Man's  rationality  means  that  he 
must  attempt  to  give  an  account  of  things — of  what 
things?  of  all  things.'*"  Then  he  must  be  prepared  to 
give  an  account  of  the  Being  of  God,  which  is  the  foun- 
dation and  the  Reason  of  all  things.  But,  if  so,  where 
is  the  difference  between  "  Secret "  and  "  Revealed  ?  " 

But,  says  the  New  Criticism,  this  is  only  in  the  Book  of 
Deuteronomy — only  in  The  Book  from  which  our  Lord 
took  His  three  answers  to  The  Tempter, 

I  ask  what  has  become  of  the  most  ordinary  reverence 
of  the  English  mind,  when  such  things  as  these  are  not 
only  publicly  proclaimed,  but  command  a  wide  and 
welcoming  currency .'' 

There  is  here  a  primary  matter  to  be  noted — 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  Lectures,  as  of  the  Book, 
is  that  it  subjects  the  Mysteries  of  God  to  metaphysical 
analysis.  This  is  more  distinctly  to  be  observed  in  the 
Lectures  than  in  the  Book.  I  shrink  from  stating  the 
primary  issue  of  this  process  ;  but  it  has  to  be  stated. 
The  issue  is  to  lower  indefinitely  the    Doctrine    of  the 


Incarnation,  and  to  interpret  it  rather  as  t/te  Manliood 
receiving  into  itself  the  Godhead ;  than  tJie  Godhead  taking 
into  itself  the  Manhood. 

I  turn  away  now  from  the  atmosphere  of  doubt,  un- 
authorised speculation,  and  metaphysical  impertinence, 
when  applied  to  Divine  Mysteries,  in  a  word,  from  for- 
bidden intrusion  into  the  ]**Iysteries  of  GOD,  to  the  purer 
atmosphere  of  Simplicity  of  Faith.  I  turn,  with  relief 
unspeakable,  to  humble  and  implicit  acceptance  of,  and 
rejoicing  in  the  Gift  of  the  Word  of  GOD. 

I  turn  to  the  histories  of  Noah,  Daniel,  Job,  chief 
examples  of  faith  before  Christ  came.  In  their  burning 
and  shining  light,  witnesses  to  three  integral  parts  of 
faith. 

Xoah  in  his  instant  and  exact  obedience — who,  "  when 
the  wickedness  of  man  was  great  upon  the  earth,"  "  found 
grace  in  the  exes  of  the  Lord,"  "  a  just  man  and  perfect  in 
his  generations" — a  man  who  "walked  with  God."  Daniel 
in  his  overcoming  "  the  lust  of  the  flesh  and  the  lust  of  the 
CNCs" — in  his  holy  innocence;  in  his  never- failing  trust ;  in 
the  abundance  of  his  promise — "  Go  thou  thy  way  till  the 
end  be  :  for  thou  shalt  rest,  and  stand  in  thy  lot  at  the 
end  of  the  days."  Job,  of  whom  it  had  been  said  of  God — 
"  Hast  thou  considered  My  servant  Job  :  that  there  is 
none  like  him  in  the  earth ;  a  perfect  and  an  upright  man, 
one  tliat  feareth  God,  and  escheweth  evil  ?  '  Job,  in  the 
fulfilling  the  good  purpose  of  his  trial,  tried  to  the  utmost — 
complaining,  asserting  himself  before  God,  reasoning,  in 
word,  with  man,  upon  man  s  confounding  chastening  with 
punishment ;  but  in  mind,  if  not  in  heart,  reasoning  witli 
God  ;  until  God,  in  His  great  mercy,  bowed  Himself  to 
reason  with  His  Servant ;  to  teach  him  the  yet  more 
perfect  way.  And  wherein  consists  that  teaching  ?  Is  it 
not  wonderfully  wanted,  most  wonderfull}*  in  this  our  own 
time?  How  was  it  tlie  Almighty  God  vouchsafed  to 
teach  Job  where  it  was  that  he  failed  }  God  taught  Job 
by  bringing  home  to  his  mind  and  heart  how  poor  and 
small  a  thing  his  knowledge  was.     That  not  only  could 


234 

he  not  make  one  of  the  least  marvels  of  the  Creation  of 
God,  but  that  he  could  not  so  much  as  understand  how 
and  why  these  were  made. 

Now,  then,  let  us  hear  Job  himself  making  reply  before 
God.  His  mind  and  heart  are  wholly  changed.  He  resists 
no  more.  He  complains  no  more.  He  reasons  no  more. 
He  submits.  He  does  more  than  submit.  He  has  learnt 
to  abhor  himself,  and  to  repent  in  dust  and  ashes.  The 
perfect  man  who  had  thought  he  lacked  nothing,  and  was 
in  no  danger  of  lacking  anything,  has  found  cause  to 
"  abhor  himself,  and  to  repent  in  dust  and  ashes."  He 
has  found  cause  for  all  this,  because  being  brought  near 
unto  God,  and  hearkening  unto  God,  resisting  no  more, 
complaining  no  more,  reasoning  no  more,  he  has  learnt  to 
repent  and  abhor  himself — to  repent  in  dust  and  ashes. 
And  so  it  was  that  the  Lord  "  blessed  the  latter  end  of 
Job  more  than  his  beginning." 

God  grant  to  us  in  His  mercy  to  read,  mark,  learn,  the 
lessons  of  the  Old  Scriptures — sealed  as  every  one  of  them 
is  with  the  Seal  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ. 

"  Then  Job  answered  the  Lord  and  said — 
"  I  know  that  Thou  canst  do  everything,  and  that  no 
thought  can  be  withholden  from  Thee.  Who  is  he  that 
hideth  counsel  without  knowledge  ?  Therefore  have  I 
uttered  that  I  understood  not ;  things  too  wonderful  for 
me,  which  I  knew  not.  Hear,  I  beseech  Thee,  and  I  will 
speak  :  I  will  demand  of  Thee,  and  declare  Thou  unto 
me.  I  have  heard  of  Thee  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear  ;  but 
now  my  eye  seeth  Thee.  Wherefore  I  abhor  myself,  and 
repent  in  dust  and  ashes." 

Who  is  it  that  gaineth  anything  ?  Who  is  it  that  doth 
not  peril  everything  for  himself  and  others  by  leading 
both  himself  and  others  away  from  the  simplicity  of 
Belief  in  the  Old  Scriptures  ?  Is  there  any  other  belief 
that  can  supply  its  place  ?  There  is  none  anywhere,  now  ; 
nor  is  there  any  to  look  for.  For  these  are  "  the  last 
days."     There  is  no  room  to  hope  for  any  other  Revela- 


235 

tion  than  that  we  have  received.  Are  we,  instead  of 
laying  fast  hold  of  it  by  grace  sought  and  given,  and 
embracing  it  in  heart  and  mind — in  heart,  I  say  first, 
because  it  is  "  with  the  heart  that  man  believeth  unto 
righteousness  " — are  we  to  go  about  to  deceive  ourselves, 
and  to  help  others  to  deceive  themselves,  into  a  more 
excellent  way,  of  man's  "  invention,"  than  God  hath  pre- 
pared for  us  to  walk  in?  Nay,  dear  people  in  Christ, 
rather  let  us  learn,  after  the  example  of  Job,  if  we  have 
been  led  astray ;  if  we  have  not  as  yet  been  led  astray, 
but  are  tempted  to  walk  in  the  lust  of  the  pride  of  life,  let 
us  learn  to  turn  to  God  in  Christ,  to  repent  and  abhor 
ourselves  in  dust  and  ashes  ;  in  the  sure  hope  that,  so 
doing.  He  will  receive  us,  and  make  our  end  better  than 
our  beginning. 

"  To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  Tree 
of  Life,  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  Paradise  of  God."  I 
turn,  in  the  last  place,  to  the  threefold  chain  which  cannot 
be  broken  between  the  Old  Scriptures  and  the  New. 

All  about  "  the  strait  gate,"  opening  into  "  the  narrow 
way,"  that  leads  to  Heaven,  lie  on  every  side  the  three 
temptations  of  man.  The  three  temptations  that  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  bowed  Himself  to  undergo 
that  in  His  strength,  who  underwent  and  overcame,  man 
might  undergo  and  overcome :  "  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the 
lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life."  All  about  the 
strait  gate  and  the  narrow  way  is  the  darkness  of  the 
Tempter.  But  the  Spirit  of  God  is  there  also,  moving 
upon  the  face  of  the  waters  of  the  new  Creation  in  Christ. 
There  is  light  to  guide,  grace  to  help,  power  to  overcome ; 
power  to  regain  the  "  right  to  the  Tree  of  Life." 

There  are  those  of  us  who,  by  grace  given  in  Holy 
Baptism  ;  and,  grace  sought,  who  overcome  the  World  and 
the  Flesh  ;  but  who  fail  to  overcome  that  which  is  called,  in 
its  own  special  sense,  the  temptation  of  the  Devil.  The 
Pride  of  life,  St.  John  calls  it.  That  which  tempted  our 
first  Parents  ;  and  tempts  each  one  of  us,  especially  the 
learned  few  amongst  us,  to  think  himself  wiser  than  God. 


236 

What  fruit  does  this  last  and  greatest  temptation  bear  ? 
It  corrupts  the  Reason  of  man — then  the  passions  through 
the  Reason.  This  was  the  art  and  wile  by  which  the 
Tempter  prevailed  and  taught  man  to  fall  away  from 
God.  It  is  written  in  the  third  chapter  of  Genesis,  one  of 
the  chapters  which  the  "  New  Criticism  "  tells  us  is  Myth, 
not  History.  It  would  be  ludicrous,  if  it  were  not  terrible, 
to  see  how  easily  we  poor  creatures  of  threescore  years 
and  ten  apply  ourselves  to  the  pulling  out  foundation  and 
corner-stones  of  God's  Building.  It  is  written  in  the  third 
chapter  of  Genesis.  It  is  not  written  elsewhere.  Take 
away  Genesis  out  of  the  Record  of  God,  and  you  have  no 
Record  at  all.  Insinuate  doubts  about  the  Record  of 
God,  doubts  of  any  kind,  and  you  have  less  than  no 
Record  at  all,  for  you  have  a  Record  of  every  man's 
making.  Man  knows  nothing,  can  know  nothing,  save 
from  Genesis,  the  first  chapters,  how  it  is  that  he  is  as  he 
is,  and  where  he  is  and  what  he  is  for  his  little  life  here. 
What  is  his  condition,  what  is  his  hope,  what  is  his 
assurance  of  a  life,  not  like  this  little  life,  but  pure, 
innocent,  never  dying,  equal,  as  our  Saviour  tells  us,  unto 
the  life  of  the  Angels.  Did  not  the  Tempter  begin, 
"  Yea,  hath  God  said,"  dropping  into  the  heart  of  the 
woman  the  first  drop  of  poison,  the  Doubt  of  God  .-*  Did 
he  not  continue,  "  Ye  shall  not  surely  die,"  denying  the 
Truth  of  the  Word  of  God  ?  Advancing  a  step  further, 
did  he  not  call  in,  when  he  saw  the  heart  and  the  mind  of 
the  woman  tottering  to  its  fall,  the  two  other  subordinate 
temptations — the  lust  of  the  flesh  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes, 
adding  them  to  the  temptation  to  be  wiser  than  God  ? 

"  And  when  the  woman  saw  that  the  tree  was  good  for 
food,  and  that  it  was  pleasant  to  the  eyes,  and  a  tree 
to  be  desired  to  make  one  wise,  she  took  of  the  fruit 
thereof  and  did  eat,  and  gave  also  unto  her  husband 
with  her,  and  he  did  eat." 

Our  first  parents  fell  away  from  God.  They  lost 
Paradise,  the  way  of  the  Tree  of  Life  was  fenced  against 
them  by  the  Cherubim.     The  World  has  lost  the  access 


to  the  Tree  of  Life — not  the  hope  of  access,  but  the 
fruit  of  hope  in  the  glory  of  its  perfectness  on  this  side 
the  grave. 

We  are  told  now  that  all  this  is  "Myth."  That  it 
"  lacks  the  historic  germ  " — something  which  is  one  of  the 
figments  of  these  latter  days.  We  are  told  now  that 
the  Record  of  the  Creation,  and  of  all  that  we  have  in 
the  eleven  first  chapters  of  Genesis,  is  a  myth.  That 
a  myth  is  not  a  fable,  but  something  else — what,  we 
are  not  told — it  is  left  in  that  obscurity  of  thought  and 
expression  in  which  men  seem  to  take  so  much  pleasure 
in  our  time.  What  still  goes  by  the  name  of  Logic  in 
Oxford  is  something  like  an  unknown  quantity.  But 
supposing  we  could  be  told,  how  should  we  be  the  better 
for  being  told  ?  We  want  the  account  of  our  life  as  it 
is,  and  as  we  hope  it  will  be.  In  its  beginning  and  in 
its  substance  it  is  in  the  first  three  chapters  of  Genesis. 
In  its  progress  and  in  its  failure  by  reason  of  unrepented 
sin  it  is  in  the  rest  of  Holy  Scripture,  Old  and  New. 
In  its  hope  and  glory  it  is  shadowed  forth  in  the  Old 
Scriptures  ;  it  is  fulfilled  in  the  New,  in  the  Gospel  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  nowhere  else. 
It  is  laid  up,  not  in  the  treasure-house  of  man,  but  of 
God.     It  is  the  Spirit  of  God  who  holds  the  key. 

The   World  talks  of  "  Difficulties  in   Scripture."     The 
World  does  not  know  what  it  is  that  it  talks  about. 

There  are  no  such  things  as  "  Difficulties  in  Scripture." 
There  are  "  Mysteries  "  in  every  page  of  it  ;  but  there 
are  no  "  Difficulties."  Dif^culty,  physical  or  moral,  means 
something  which  may  be  overcome  or  cleared  up  by 
means  of  physical  or  intellectual  power.  This  cannot 
be  done  with  a  Mystery.  A  Mystery  is  a  thing  pro- 
posed to  the  Reason  of  man  by  the  Author  and  Giver 
of  all  good  things  not  to  be  comprehended — for  the  finite 
has  no  measure  of  the  Infinite  —  but  to  be  accepted 
humbly,  thankfully,  as  the  foundation  upon  which  Eternal 
Wisdom  has  seen  good  to  build  up  in  man's  heart  and 
mind  the  faith  that  saves. 


238 

Dear  People  in  Christ,  let  us  not  seek  to  be  fed  upon 
emptiness — nay,  rather  let  us  strive  to  help  one  another 
in  this,  our  little  life,  to  "  a  better  and  enduring  sub- 
stance ;  "  to  accept  humbly  what  has  been  given  unto 
us  to  know,  and  to  keep  it  unto  life  eternal.  To  enter 
in  by  grace  given  by  "  the  strait  gate,"  to  walk  in  "  the 
narrow  way "  by  the  light  of  the  Spirit,  ever  shining 
through  the  darkness  of  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
Devil  ;  ever  moving  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  re- 
creating, purifying — not  turning  aside  to  the  right  hand 
or  to  the  left  to  lay  hold  of  the  treasures  of  the  Reason 
or  the  Passion  of  this  world  —  the  lust  of  passion,  the  lust 
of  power,  the  lust  of  Reason  ;  calling  us  to  a  Wisdom 
which  is  not  Wisdom,  but  foolishness  with  God  ;  remem- 
bering always,  day  by  day,  night  by  night,  what  God 
hath  showed  us.  He  hath  showed  us  what  is  good — 
what  it  is  that  God  doth  require  of  us.  He  requireth 
of  us  to  do  justice,  to  love  mercy,  to  walk  humbly  with 
thy  God  (Micah  vi.  8). 

And  again,  as  God  saith  unto  us  all  by  His  Prophet 
Isaiah,  "  Let  him  take  hold  of  My  strength,  that  he  may 
make  peace  with  Me ;  and  he  shall  make  peace  with 
Me"  (xxvii.  5). 

To  him  that  overcometh  will-  I  give  to  eat  of  the  Tree 
of  Life,  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  Paradise  of  God. 

I  end  here  with  the  Old  Scripture  with  which  I  began 
these  sermons. 

"  The  secret  things  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God  : 
but  those  things  which  are  Revealed  belong  unto  us  and 
to  our  children  for  ever ;  that  we  may  do  all  the  Words 
of  this  Law"  (Deut.  xxix.  29).     Amen. 


SERMON    IV. 

P readied  in  Wells  Cathedral^  Sunday,  Feb.  7,  i8g2. 


''  LIG  H  Tr 


GENESIS   i.    I,    2,    3. 

*  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth.     And 

the  earth  was  without  form  and  void ;  and  darkness  was  upon 
the  face  of  the  deep. 

*  A?id  the  Spirit  of  God  «  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters ; 

and  God  said^  Let  there  be  light ;  and  there  was  light'^ 

ISAIAH   lix.    9. 
"  We  wait  for  light,  but  behold  obscurity  ;  for  brightness,  but  we 
walk  in  darkness^ 

ZECHARIAH  xiv.   6. 
"  But  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  at  evening  time  it  shall  be  light." 

ST.  JOHN  i.  4,  5- 
"/«  Him  was  light,  and  the  light  was  the  life  of  men,  and  the  light 
shineth  in  darktiess,  and  the  darkness  comprehended  it  not." 

Dearly  beloved  in  Christ, — I  propose  this  morning  to 
bring  together  these  places  of  Holy  Scripture,  each  in 
the  order  of  time  and  Inspiration. 

Light,  in  "  Holy  Scripture,"  is  used  to  denote  all  that 
is  good — yea,  even  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  Himself — as 
darkness  is  used  to  denote  all  that  is  bad :  all  that  of 
which  the  Tempter  is  "  The  Prince  " — the  Prince  of  this 
world,  who  hath  nothing  in  Christ — the  Prince  of  the 
darkness  of  this  world. 

First,  then,  for  Genesis — especially  for  the  first  eleven 

•  Note  V.  2. — There  would  appear  to  be  nothing  to  limit  the  time  that  may 
have  passed  between  the  word  "  deep  "  and  the  rest  of  v.  2  and  v.  3.  The 
Creation  of  Light  and  Life  begins  with  "  The  Spirit  of  God  moving  upon  the 
face  of  the  waters." 


240 

chapters  thereof,  which  contain  all  the  substance  of  what 
is  known  to  man  of  the  relations  of  God  to  man,  and  man 
to  God,  Take  away  these  chapters — touch  their  Inspi- 
ration (that  is,  their  Divine  Integrity  and  Authority) — 
and  we  are  in  hopeless  ignorance,  in  the  darkness  that 
may  be  felt,  about  the  Creation  of  Heaven  and  Earth — • 
about  the  first  innocence  of  man,  his  temptation,  his  fall, 
his  redemption  in  and  by  Christ — about  everything,  chief 
and  governing  parts  of  this  world's  history  ;  down  to  the 
time  of  Abraham.  We  have  been  robbed  of  the  founda- 
tion, and  we  grope  in  darkness  ;  we  have  lost  the  light ;  all 
the  light  of  the  soul  and  spirit,  which  is  necessary  to  our 
knowing  all  our  sins  ;  all  our  infirmities ;  all  our  danger 
of  losing  our  inheritance  in  Christ ;  all  that  can  make 
us  cry  aloud  to  the  Spirit  to  guide  us  into  humble  and 
thankful  use  of  tloly  Scripture. 

And  the  same  account  applies  to  the  proposal  to  resolve 
these  eleven  chapters  into  "  myth,"  whatever  may  be 
the  precise  meaning  of  that  word  in  connection  with  the 
context  of  the  proposal.  As  yet  I  have  seen  nothing 
approaching  to  a  definition  of  it  fitting  to  be  applied 
to  The  Word  of  God.  And  if  it  be  after  all  only  a  figur- 
ative fancy  of  the  learned  man  so  to  speak  of  that  Word, 
without  any  purpose  of  inpugning  The  Truth  of  that 
Word  in  all  its  substance,  to  what  good  purpose  to  use 
a  word  which  to  the  millions  of  men  will  present  itself 
in  no  other  shape,  than  that  of  suggesting  difference 
between  one  part  of  Holy  Scripture  and  another?  If 
difference  between,  then  doubt  of  all  "  Holy  Scripture," 
more  or  less  ;  and  it  is  just  this  which  has  been  the  fruit 
amongst  us  of  "  The  New  Criticism."  To  doubt  God, 
i.e.,  to  tempt  God,  to  try  God,  whether  He  hath  spoken 
truth  or  no'',  has  from  first  to  last  been  the  chief  temp- 
tation of  man.  Wheresoever  doubt  creeps  in,  and  settles 
itself;  which  it  does  easily  where  there  is  not  continual 
prayer  and  watching  unto  prayer ;  then  faith  departs, 
and  man  walks  by  sight  and  not  by  faith. 

''  Exodus  xvii.  2 — 7  ;  Deut.  vi.  16  ;  St.  Luke  iv.  12. 


241 

I  cannot  here  go  into  the  order  of  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis.  It  would  take  more  time  than  I  may  give 
to  it  here  <^, 

There  is,  however,  one  thing  inseparably  connected 
with  the  first  25  verses  of  it  that  I  may  not  pass  by  in 
connection  with  so  much  of  the  chapter  as  precedes  them. 

Observe,  then,  there  is  in  connection  with  these  25  verses 
an  account  commonly  given  of  the  first  history  of  this 
world,  called  "  The  Rectified  Traditional  Account." 

It  is  an  account  wholly  opposed  to  "The  Analytical 
Account "  of"  The  New  Criticism,"  as  it  is  to  "  The  Myth  " 

"=  Creation— Order  of  Genesis  I, 

{a)  Genesis  I.  reveals  to  man  the  Creation  of  God— nowhere  else  given — 
in  its  parts  and  order. 

(3)  The  Creation  of  the  Heaven  and  the  Earth;  That  "the  Earth  was 
without  form  and  void  ; "  That  "  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the 
Deep." — vv.  i — 2  down  to  "deep." 

{c)  That  "  The  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters ; "  That 
"Light "was  created,  "divided  from  darkness;"  That  "God  called 
the  light  Day,  and  the  darkness  Night;  That  "the  evening  and  the 
morning  were  the  first  day  " — vv.  2 — 5. 

{d)  That  God  made  the  "firmanent  in  the  midst  of  the  waters,  dividing  the 
waters  from  the  waters  ; "  That  "  God  called  the  firmament  Heaven  :  " 
That  "the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  second  day." — vv.  6, 
7,8. 

(e)  That  God  bade  "the  waters  under  the  heaven  to  be  gathered  together 
unto  one  place,  and  let  the  dry  land  appear  : "  That  "  God  called  the 
dry  land  Earth  ;  and  that  the  gathering  together  of  the  waters  He 
called  Seas ;  "  That  God  bade  the  Earth  bring  forth  all  her  produce  ; 
That  "  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  third  day." — vv.  9,  10, 
II,  12,  13. 

(/)  That  God  provided  lights  in  Heaven  for  the  Earth,  day  and  night ;  That 
"the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  fourth  day." — vv.  14,  15,  16, 
17,  18,  19. 

{g)  That  God  created  "the  moving  creature  that  hath  life  in  the  sea,  and  m 
the  air  ;  "  That  "  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  fifth  day." — 
vv.  20,  21,  22,  23. 

{A)  That  God  bade  "  the  Earth  bring  forth  the  living  creature  after  his  kind, 
cattle,  and  creeping  thing  and  beast  of  the  earth  after  his  kind ;  " 
That  God  made  man  in  His  own  image,  to  have  dominion  over  the 
fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing 
that  moveth  upon  the  Earth;  That  God  "blessed  man,  and  said, 
Be  fruitful  and  multiply  ;"  That  "the  evening  and  the  morning  were 
the  sixth  day."— vv.  24,  25,  26,  27,  28,  29,  30,  31. 
R 


242 

of  "  The  New  Criticism ; "  and,  nevertheless,  it  is  an 
account  which  exposes  and  defeats  itself  when  set  side 
by  side  with  the  Record  of  Holy  Scripture. 

We  must  bear  in  mind  here  that  what  is  meant  by 
"  Traditional  "  is  what  is  handed  down  from  man  to  man  ; 
from  one  generation  to  another. 

Now,  it  is  not  till  v.  26,  Genesis  i.,  that  we  come  to  the 
creation  of  man  (see  also  Genesis  ii,  v.  5).  What,  there- 
fore, it  is  that  is  meant  by  "  Tradition  "  here,  i.e.  Tradition 
of  all  that  happened  in  Creation  before  there  was  a  man 
upon  the  earth  to  begin  "Tradition,"  that  is,  to  lay  the 
first  stone  of  the  building,  is  difficult  to  apprehend. 
Genesis  i.  has  31  verses.  Of  these  it  is  the  last  six  only 
which  belong  to  the  Creation  of  man.  All  that  comes 
before  there  was  not  a  man  upon  the  earth  (Gen.  ii.  5) 
to  know.  Nothing,  therefore,  to  set  down  for  Tradition 
to  transmit.  There  was  a  light,  but  no  man  to  receive 
it.  There  was  in  the  order  of  God's  Providence  every- 
thing temporal  belonging  to  this  world,  but  not  man. 
There  was  then,  upon  the  face  of  the  record  itself,  no  man 
to  tell  all  this  to  his  son.  No  man  to  lay  the  first  stone 
for  the  building  up  of  transmission  by  Tradition. 

It  would  appear  then  to  remain,  as  I  have  observed 
elsewhere,  that  the  record  of  Creation,  under  all  its  aspects 
and  sequel,  was  delivered  to  Moses  by  Inspiration  of  God. 
Reason,  boasting  itself  as  able  to  give  account  of  and 
answer  to  all  things,  cannot,  I  submit,  produce  any  other 
possible  way.  A  man  may  say  indeed,  I  understand  and 
believe,  that  all  that  was  done  in  Creation,  before  man 
was  created,  was  taiigJit  of  God  to  Adam,  and  handed 
down  by  Tradition  from  Adam.  But  it  remains,  just  the 
same,  that  the  beginning  of  Tradition  was  by  Inspiration 
— i.e.,  by  teaching  of  God.  It  may  be  what  is  called 
in  Holy  Scripture  "  walking  with  God."  We  cannot  tell. 
But  I  suppose  that  this  solution  running  up  to  Adam 
would  not  find  favour  with  the  New  Criticism.  If  accepted, 
it  would,  I  think,  be  necessary  for  them  to  abandon  their 
favourite  child,  "  myth." 


243 

I  turn  now  to  the  complaint  and  the  consolation  of 
Isaiah,  to  the  promise  of  Zechariah,  to  the  fulfilment  in 
Christ. 

"  We  wait  for  light,  but  behold  obscurity  ;  for  bright- 
ness, but  we  walk  in  darkness." 

The   prophet   complains — c.  lix.,  v.   9 — of  the   People 
of  God.     The  People  had  the  light  given  them  which  was 
not  given  to  any  other  People.     They  had  received  the 
light  for  some  1,500  years  before  Isaiah  complained   of 
■what  the  light  had  become  to  them— the  light  had  become 
obscurity;    the   brightness    had    become    darkness.     And 
yet,  as  inspired,  and  obeying  the  call  of  the  never-failing 
mercies  of  God,  in  the  Ix.  chapter  he  bursts  forth  in  the 
song   of  triumph   and    eternal  hope    for   all  who  would 
believe— " Arise,   shine;    for  thy  light  is  come,  and  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  hath  risen  upon  thee.     The  Lord  shall 
be  unto  thee  an  everlasting  light,  and  thy  God  thy  glory." 
The   time   had    not  yet  come.     Even    for   the   people 
to  whom  the  knowledge  of  The  One  God  had  been  vouch- 
safed,   and    committed.       The    time    of   bringing    good 
tidings  to  all   people.     Lower  and   lower  still   fell  faith 
in  God,  and  with  it  Worship  of  God ;  till  in  Malachi,  the 
darkest  of  the  Old  Scriptures,  and  yet  not  without  presage 
still  of  the  coming  light,  the  curse  falls  upon  a  faithless 
priesthood  and  a  betrayed  people.     But  here,  again,  the 
eternal  promise  fails  not ;  light  shines  forth  through  the 
thick  darkness,  and  the  promise  of  "the  Son  of  Righteous- 
ness, with  healing  on  His  wings,"  of  "  the  dayspring  from 
on  high,"  of  the  "  Morning  Star,"  of  "  Him  the  Light,  the 
Life  of  men,"  closes  the  Old  Scriptures,  begins  the  New, 
speaks  in  the  Angels'  song,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
and  on  earth   peace,   goodwill   towards    men,"    summons 
to  repentance   and   faith,  to  hope,  to  peace,  to  the  life 
of  heaven. 

This  is  the  twentieth  century  of  Redemption.  The 
wisdom  of  this  world  is  with  us,  here  in  England,  as 
elsewhere,  in  conflict  with  the  Simplicity  of  faith.  Now 
all  the  wisdom  of  this  world  that  ever  has  been,  or  ever 

R  2 


244 

can    be,  is    as    nothing   against   the    Simplicity  of  faith, 
the  faith  that  saves.     The  prevaih'ng  looseness  of  mind, 
the  appetite  for  "some  new  thing"  in   the  Religion  of 
Christ,  and  the   ever   increasing   self-assumption    of  our 
time,   are   all   at    work    together   against   the    Simplicity 
of  faith.     It  is  with   us,  as  it  hath   been   spoken  of  by 
the  Apostles  of  Christ,  telling  us  of  what  should   come 
in   "the   last  time,"  in   "the  last  days,"  in  the  last  dis- 
pensation of  the   Providence  of  God  vouchsafed   to  the 
inhabitants    of  the    earth.      The    Bible,    given    unto    us 
through  the  Church  by  the  Spirit,  is  become  the  plaything 
of  man's  conceit,  the  battle-ground  of  Unreason,  the  food 
for   "Criticism."      There    is    a    cry   everywhere    amongst 
us,  "What  is  Truth  ? "    There  is  another  cry.     Men,  "wise 
and    learned   men,"  have   discovered   that  the  Bible  has 
to  be  sifted,  and    pared   down,  and   tested   by  perpetual 
processes  of  doubt,  according  to  the  decision  of  the  literary 
critic,  to  be  renewed  from  time  to  time  till  the  end  of  time. 
There  is  to  be  then  a  never-ending  flux  as  long  as  the 
earth  shall  last  of  the  subject-matter  of  faith. 

This  is  what  the  World,  and  some  who  are  not  of 
the  World,  but  fall  into  its  snare,  call  "  searching  after 
Truth." 

Observe,  I  pray  you,  that  it  is  a  search  in  which  the 
millions  of  men  are  vitally  concerned,  just  as  the  few. 

How  is  the  search  to  be  pursued  ?  It  is  one  in  which 
the  millions  of  men  can  take  no  primary  or  active  part. 
But  it  remains,  nevertheless,  the  question  of  the  life  here 
alike  of  the  millions  and  of  the  few. 

Now  in  a  search  after  the  Truth  of  GoD  there  must 
be  a  particular  Basis  upon  which  to  proceed.  Is  there 
any  such  Basis  known  to  man  believing  in  Christ  outside 
The  Bible?  The  Bible  as  given  to  man  through  The 
Church  Catholic  under  the  promised  guidance  of  The 
Spirit :  or,  is  man  to  come  into  competition  with  GOD, 
and  make  a  Basis  of  his  own,  as  "  The  New  Criticism  " 
would  have  us  do  .'' 

Is  the  "  learned  man,"  having  his  gift  of  learning  given 


245 

him  of  God,  to  use  his  gift  against  GoD,  making  a  Basis 
of  his  own  "  invention  ?  "  Certainly  it  is  his  duty  to  apply 
his  learning  to  illustrate  and  explain  The  Word  of  GoD, 
within  those  limits  which  man  cannot  pass.  It  is  not 
his  duty  to  travel,  after  his  own  will  and  imagination, 
outside  those  bounds  into  regions  of  which  he  can  know 
nothing — that  is  to  say,  into  the  Mysteries  of  GOD. 
Indeed,  it  is  just  out  of  doing  this  precise  thing  that 
there  came  the  first  instance  (see  Genesis  iii.),  and  will 
come  to  the  end  of  time,  the  loss  of  the  Grace  of  God  ; 
and  "  in  Adam  all  die."  The  children  of  Adam,  trusting 
to  their  own  wisdom,  sever  themselves  from  the  one 
Basis,  The  Word  of  GOD,  and  draw  others  away  with 
and  after  them.  And  this — I  say  it  again — is  called 
"Searching  after  Truth."  Nay,  my  brethren  in  Christ, 
let  not  this  be  so  with  us.  GoD  has  provided  us  all  alike 
with  The  Truth  once  for  all,  in  His  own  Book ;  in  Holy 
Scripture.  We  have  to  search  for  it  there,  guided  by 
The  Church  Catholic;  itself  under  guidance  of  The  Spirit. 
We  have  to  teach  as  The  Church,  not  as  ourselves  would 
teach  ourselves.  Obedience  in  the  true  way  to  searching 
after  Truth.  Obedience  to  what  is  written  for  us  in  "  Holy 
Scripture."  Not  to  what  we  may  "  invent "  for  ourselves 
out  of  Holy  Scripture. 

For  any  other  manner  of  Searching  after  Truth,  it  is 
a  search  in  which  the  millions  of  men  can  take  no  part  : 
not  so  much  as  to  understand  what  the  nature  or  manner 
of  the  search  is,  and  whether  it  be  right  or  wrong.  They 
will  be  guided  mainly  by  outside  causes  ;  led  rightly  or 
wrongly  by  other  men. 

All  that  they  can  understand  in  the  matter,  as  it  is 
before  the  English  People,  is  that  "  learned  men  "  are 
telling  them  that  The  Truth  of  The  Bible  is  by  no  means 
so  certain  as  it  is  supposed  to  be ;  and  that  men  have 
to  try  to  find  out  where  and  what  the  Truth  is  of  them- 
selves. 

And  so  the  miUions  of  men  follow  after  the  few  ;  and 
the  lowly  and  humble  are  mingled  with   "  the  proud  in 


246 

heart,"  are  deceived  into  casting  away  the  Simplicity  of 
Faith,  and  "  trust  to  a  broken  reed,  whereon  if  a  man 
lean,  it  will  go  "  into  "  his  hand  and  pierce  if^." 

It  is  not  a  blessed,  it  is  a  wretched  and  a  most  cruel 
thing  to  go  about  to  rob,  not  ourselves  only,  but  the 
millions  of  men,  of  our  own  and  their  common  and  only 
hope,  and  to  give  them  nothing  in  exchange  but  "  the 
pride  of  life." 

I  need  add  no  more  of  this.  I  have  said  it  many 
times;  but  my  heart  and  mind  is  so  full  of  the  darkness 
which  is  crushing  out  the  light  from  thousands  of  souls, 
that  I  must  needs  say  it  again. 

The  World  laughs.  There  is  a  Judge  Who  is  not 
of  the  World.     Perfect  God.     Perfect  Man. 

I  turn  back  to  the  promise  of  Zcchariah — "  At  even 
time  it  shall  be  light."  What  is  it  then  that  for  every 
one  of  us — however  it  may  from  time  to  time  be  hidden 
away  in  and  by  other  things— what  is  it  that  all  our  hearts 
would  confess  to  be  its  dearest  hope  ?  Is  it  not  that 
at  even  time  it  may  be  light — that  then  there  may  be 
no  darkness  at  all  ?  What  is  there  in  the  life  of  every  one 
of  us  so  precious  as  this  ? 

The  Light  has  come.  We  live  in  the  Light.  The 
Spirit  bids  us  walk  in  the  light,  helps  us,  intercedes  for 
us,  goes  before  us,  worketh  in  and  with  us,  leading,  guid- 
ing us  to  walk  in  the  light.  He  is  our  Strength,  He 
is  our  Peace.  He  is  ever  with  us  if  we  will  listen  and 
obey  His  voice,  calling  upon  us  to  repent,  love,  believe, 
live  as  the  redeemed  of  Christ. 

Where  do  we  read  all  this  ?  how  do  we  know  all  this  ? 
Where  and  how  but  in  and  by  The  Word  of  God  ?  There 
is  no  other  thing  in  the  World  to  tell  us  of  it ;  nor  will 
there  be.  Let  us  hear  again  the  Prophet  Isaiah,  xliii.  9 : 
— "  Let  all  the  nations  be  gathered  together  ;  and  let 
the  people  be  assembled.  Who  among  them  can  de- 
clare this,  and  show  us  former  things?    Let  them  bring 

^  2  Kings  xviii.  21  ;  Isaiah  xxxvi.  6  ;  Ezekiel  xxix.  6,  7. 


247 

forth  their  witnesses  that  they  may  be  justified  ;  or 
let  them  hear  and  say  It  is  Truth."  God  has  given 
us  His  "  Word."  Has  He  anywhere  told  us  that  we 
are  Judges  of  His  Word }  Do  we  say  that  there  are 
portions  of  it  which  our  natural  Reason  here  cannot 
reach?  It  would  not  be  the  Book  of  the  God  whom 
we  cannot  see  if  there  were  not.  We  are  not  in  darkness 
because  there  are  things  we  cannot  see  ;  we  are  not  foolish 
because  there  are  things  we  cannot  grasp.  We  are  wiser 
than  the  World  which  interprets  them  to  suit  man's  un- 
reason. The  World  says  there  are  "  difficulties  in  Scrip- 
ture," and  how  does  the  World,  and  the  Church,  if  it  listen 
to  the  World,  proceed  to  get  rid  of  the  difficulties?  By 
getting  rid  of  "  Holy  Scripture"  wheresoever  "  Holy  Scrip- 
ture "  is  found  to  be  inconvenient.  The  World  speaks  of 
what  it  docs  not — of  itself  cannot —understand. 

There  are  no  "difficulties  in  Scripture" — it  is  an  abuse 
of  language  and  of  thought  to  say  there  are.  A  difficulty 
is — I  have  said  it  before,  but  think  it  worth  repeating — 
a  difficulty  is  a  thing  which  man's  either  physical  or 
mental  power  can  overcome.  There  are  numberless 
Mysteries  in  Scripture  which  no  mental  power  of  man 
can  so  much  as  touch.  There  are  no  "  difficulties,"  save 
only  such  as  man  in  his  un-Reason  "  invents  "  for  himself 
and  others.  The  man  who  docs  this,  I  say  it  again,  walks 
by  sight,  not  by  faith. 

Our  little  life  of  threescore  years  and  ten,  with  all 
its  lesser  periods,  is  more  than  enough  wherein  to  .save 
our  souls,  with  or  without  the  learning  of  this  world,  that 
may,  or  may  not,  be  ours,  even  as  God  has  ordered  in  His 
Providence  for  each  and  every  one  of  us.  How  great 
is  the  responsibility  of  the  learned  man  to  see  that  he 
neither  speaks  nor  writes  anything  which  can  in  any 
member  tend  to  discourage  the  simplicity  of  faith,  I  have 
no  words  to  say. 

O  holiest  and  most  blessed  promise,  "at  even  time 
there  shall  be  light."  The  light  that  is  nearest  upon  earth 
to  the  light  that  is  in  Heaven.     God,  in  His  Mercy,  grant 


248 

It  may  be  so  with  us.  Is  it  not  worth — can  we  even 
venture  to  set  it  side  by  side  with  all  the  learning  and 
power  and  place  of  this  world— yea,  even  with  all  the 
peace  that  comes  of  prayer  and  watching  unto  prayer, 
all  holy  thought  and  searching  of  meditation  upon  "  Holy 
Scripture  ?  "  Is  it  not  the  sum  of  all  this,  more  precious 
even  than  all  this,  to  have  it  for  our  own  in  life  and  death 
by  the  Comforting  of  The  Spirit  for  the  Merits  of  Christ  ? 
It  it  not  worth  the  utmost  all  that  this  world  can  give, 
that  when  "  the  world  passeth  away "  from  us  "  and  the 
lust  thereof,"  if  we  have  believed  in  Christ,  and  in  Him 
have  had  all  things  made  possible  <^  to  us,  have  been  taught 
of  Christ,  have  come  nearer  and  nearer  unto  Him  by 
The  Spirit,  is  it  not  the  most  precious  of  all  things  in 
Earth  and  Heaven,  of  all  things  the  most  precious,  that 
we  are  His  own  in  life  and  death? 

Then  "  at  even  time  there  will  be  light  "  all  around 
us  as  we  die — as  we  go  to  Him  to  Whom  we  have  cried 
in  life  and  death,  "Lord,  I  believe,  help  Thou  mine  un- 
belief—to Him  Who  calleth  us  to  Himself  in  the  Light 
of  Heaven. 

*  "Jesus  said  unto  him,  If  thou  canst  believe,  all  things  are  possible  to  him 
that  believeth."— St.  Mark  ix.  23. 


SERMON    V. 

A  Sermon  preached  in  Wells  Cathedral,  August  7,  i8g2. 


ST.  JOHN  V.  21. 
''Little  children  keep  yourselves  from  idols  P 

REV.  xxii.  8,  9. 
"  And  I  John  saw  these  things,  and  heard  them.  And  when  I  had 
heard  and  seen  I  fell  down  to  worship  before  the  feet  of  the  angel 
which  showed  me  these  things.  Then  said  he  unto  ine.  See  thou 
do  it  not :  for  I  am  thy  fellow-servattt  and  of  thy  brethren  the 
prophets,  and  of  them  which  keep  the  sayings  of  this  Book. 
Worship  God." 

The  first  of  these  texts  of  Holy  Scripture  is  the  last 
of  ten  places  of  Holy  Scripture  of  the  New  Testament 
in  which   the  words  "little   children"  are   used  by  our 
Lord  and  His  apostles.    The  places  are,  first,  those  spoken 
of  infants:— St.  Matt,  xviii.  3;    St.  Matt.  xix.    13,    14; 
St.  Mark  x.  14 ;    St.  Luke  xviii.    16,  in  all,  five   places. 
Second,  those  spoken  of  those  of  all   other  ages,  these 
also,  in  all,  five  places:— i.  By  our  Lord,  St.  John  xiii. 
33:  By  St.  Paul,  Gal.  iv.   19:  By  St.  John  i,  ii.  i  ;  iv.  4; 
v.  21.     It  is  to  be  noted,  further,  that  our  Lord,  St.  Matt, 
xviii.  4,  "Whosoever  therefore  shall  humble  himself  as 
this   little   child,  the    same  is  greatest  in   the   kingdom 
of  heaven,"  brings   into  one  the  freedom    from  original 
sin  by  reason  of  baptized  infancy,  and  the  freedom  from 
sin  after  Baptism  in  those  "little  children"  of  all  other 
ages  of  life,  by  reason  of  the  pardoning  mercy  of  God 
upon  true  repentance   and    faith   in   Him.     So  that  the 
Scriptural  meaning  of  the  words  "little  children"  is  every 
way   clear   and    complete,   and    beyond   all   question   or 
dispute,  as  we  should  by  faith  look  to  find  it  in  the  Word 
of  God;    the   Book    of  God-the   one   guide,  accordmg 
to  our  Lord's  promise  by  the  Spirit  into  all  truth,  by  the 
voice  and  the  hand  of  His  Church. 


250 

Further,  it  may  not  be  passed  by  that  we  have  here 
in  St.  Matt,  xxiii.  6,  the  awful  curse  denounced  by  our 
Lord  upon  those  of  His  "  little  children "  not  in  their 
infancy,  who  should  by  their  sins,  either  of  commission 
or  omission,  teach  and  encourage  others  to  sin,  secretly 
or  openly  ;  and  have  not,  with  a  bruised  and  broken  spirit 
and  contrite  heart,  repented  of  and  done  all  in  their  power 
to  repair  this  their  sin  by  newness  of  life  in  themselves 
and  before  others ;  by  grace  vouchsafed  in  answer  to 
their  cry  for  mercy. 

I  hope  I  have  advanced  enough  to  show  that  every 
one  of  us,  baptized  into  Christ  by  water  and  the  Spirit — 
high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  priest  and  people,  all  ages, 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men — that  every  one  of  us 
is,  by  gift  of  God  the  Father,  in  Christ  the  Son,  for 
Christ's  sake,  by  the  Spirit,  young  and  not  young,  "  a  little 
child,"  marked  as  such  in  baptism  with  the  cross  of  Christ 
in  life  and  in  death. 

That  it  is  our  "  reward  "  when  we  die  to  have  continued 
to  be  among  the  "  little  children  "  of  Christ,  in  the  sim- 
plicity of  our  faith,  in  daily  repentance  and  newness  of 
life  is,  I  think,  not  necessary  for  me  to  go  about  to 
prove  from  the  Word  of  God.  I  need  not,  therefore, 
comment  further  upon  St.  Matthew  xviii.  i-ii,  and  its 
corresponding  passages  in  the  New  Testament ;  or  show 
in  detail  how  all  this  is  prefigured  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment according  to  that  wonderful  connection  and  cor- 
respondence between  the  Old  Scriptures  and  the  New, 
which  is  throughout  to  be  found  in  the  Word  of  God. 
It  is  the  "threefold  cord  between  them  which  cannot 
be  broken." 

It  has  pleased  God,  in  His  merciful  warning,  to  bring 
upon  the  English  people  in  this  our  day  a  visitation  and 
a  trial,  of  no  ordinary  kind.  I  have  nothing  to  say  here 
of  what  is  passing  outside  the  pale  of  the  Church  of 
England.  Inside  her  pale  there  is  much  of  a  specially 
seductive  character  with  which,  as  an  English  Churchman, 
I    have,    within    my    own    sphere    of    duty   and    action, 


251 

everything  to  say  and  do,  and  which,  in  these  dangerous 
days,  will,  I  believe,  command  the  first  place  in  my 
thoughts  daily  so  long  as  the  mercy  of  God  spares  me  to 
live. 

The  visitation  and  the  trial  is,  which  of  two  things  is 
most  entitled  to  our  respect,  observance,  care,  thankful- 
ness, as  conveying  and  guaranteeing  to  us  from  God, 
upon  His  own  conditions,  peace  in  this  life,  eternal  life 
in  the  new  heaven  and  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness.  Is  it,  then,  the  Book  called  the  Bible — 
the  Book  of  God  as  delivered  once  for  all  by  the  Church, 
the  Old  Scriptures  and  the  New,  delivered  to  man  for 
all  time  under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit,  according  to 
the  promise  of  Christ — or  is  it  the  ever  multiplying,  ever 
changing  "opinions,"  conclusions,  and  inventions  of  learned 
men  touching  the  different  degrees  of  acceptance  by  man 
due  to  this  or  that  portion  of  the  Bible?  In  the  first 
of  these  sources  we  find  the  simplicity  of  faith — the  way 
of  the  life  to  the  "  little  children "  of  Christ  the  Lord, 
the  Saviour  and  the  judge.  In  the  second,  we  find  the 
setting  up  of  idols  to  worship  ;  the  setting  up  of  man 
to  be,  each  for  himself,  or  as  following  some  one  whom 
he  is  content  to  take  for  his  guidance  and  authority  as 
final  judge  of  the  revelation  of  God  ;  of  what  is  His 
revelation  and  what  is  not, 

I  try  to  reduce  into  its  primary  and  governing  elements 
and  issues  the  visitation  and  the  trial  which  are  upon 
the  Baptized,  in  their  true  character,  of  "  little  children  " 
before  God  our  Father  for  His  dear  Son's  sake.  On  the 
one  hand  there  is  the  pride  of  the  Reasoning  Power,  the 
pride  which  St.  John  calls  "  the  pride  of  life  ; "  the  last 
and  the  greatest  of  the  temptations  and  trials  of  man, 
as  it  was  of  Him  Who  came  to  save  man  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Ministry  of  Salvation,  and  corresponding  exactly 
to  the  temptation  by  which  our  first  parents  fell  away 
from  the  grace  of  God,  and  sin  and  death  came  in  for 
all  time.  The  conceit  and  the  pride  of  the  Reasoning 
Power,   the    distinctive    gift   of  our   creation,  called    into 


252 

action,  stimulating  us  to  proceed  from  one  presumption 
to  another,  and    gathering   strength    from    every  assault 
here  upon   the  simplicity  of  faith.     On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  the  duty  of  those  who  are  called  to  the  office 
of  teaching  and  expounding  to  Church  people  the  Word 
of  God,  to  draw  for  themselves  and  others  living  water 
out  of  the  spring  which  never  fails  to   supply  them,  as 
it    supplies   himself,   from    the   One    source   of  all  Truth 
vouchsafed    to    man  on  this    side   the   grave,  The    Book 
of  God.     It  is   my  duty,  therefore,  as  one  of  the  least 
of  such  teachers,  to  do  all  I  may,  to  be  ever  recalling 
to  myself  and  others  our  little    childhood    before   God; 
our  utter  incapacity  to  understand  and  comprehend  one 
of  the   least   mysteries  of  God  ;    to  know  that  we  must 
die  as  we  have  lived,  not  understanding,  not  having  the 
power  to  understand  what  our  Father  which  is  in  Heaven 
has    not    revealed   to    us ;    understanding   this    only,   the 
conclusion  of  the  man  who  was  the  "  wisest "  of  men  by 
God's  gift,  and  repeating  it  to  ourselves  and  others  day 
by  day,  "  Let  us  hear  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter 
— Fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments,  for  this  is  the 
whole  duty  of  man."     To  know  the  fact  of  a  Mystery 
of  God  ;  to  confess  it  in  the  words  in  which  the  Church 
has  confessed  it  for  us  ;  to  worship  God  for  it  in  Christ 
The  Lord,  in  the  humbleness  of  a  little  child ;  to  receive 
all  that  is   necessary  unto  salvation,  as  the   little  child 
receives   from  the  parent's  hand ;    this   is   one  thing ;    a 
thing   which   has   the    Blessing   of  Christ    upon    it.     To 
be  ever  questioning  about  the  Divine  oneness  and   au- 
thority of  this  or  that  portion  of  The  Book   in  which, 
and  in  which  alone,  God  has  seen  fit  to  reveal  Himself 
to  man — to  be  ever  wasting  the  powers  of  our  poor  little 
life  upon  "  ever  learning,  and  never  able  to  come  to  the 
knowledge  of,  The  Truth  " — to  make  idols  of  ourselves 
or  others  to  worship ;    this  is  another  thing.     There  is 
nothing  in  it  of  "the  Httle  child."     It  has  not  upon  it  the 
Blessing  of  Christ. 

I  would  submit  for  the  consideration  of  those,  to  whom 


253 

I  speak  that  the  two  fundamental  and  primary  lessons 
to  be  learnt  by  heart  and  mind  by  the  Baptized  into 
Christ,  from  the  words  "little  children,"  as  applied  in 
Holy  Scripture  to  all  times  of  life,  are  (i)  the  lesson  of 
ever-growing,  never-failing,  humbleness  before  God  the 
Father  for  the  sake  of  Christ  the  Son,  by  the  strengthen- 
ing and  comforting  of  the  Spirit  ;  and  (2)  the  lesson 
by  the  same  Spirit  of  absolute,  unconditional,  unques- 
tioning dependence  upon  God  as  Revealed  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament ;  as  these  have 
been  delivered  to  the  world  for  all  time  by  the  Spirit 
guiding  into  all  Truth  as  promised  by  our  Lord,  and 
speaking  to  all  Peoples  by  the  voice  of  the  undivided 
Church. 

The  two  lessons  of  humbleness  and  dependence  are 
indeed  inseparable  as  cause  and  effect,  and  I  turn  to 
consider  them  briefly  ;  premising  only  that  both  lessons 
are  irreconcilable  with  the  assault  upon  the  Divine 
Integrity,  or  Oneness,  and  the  authority  of  "  Holy  Scrip- 
ture "  now  proposing  to  supersede  the  order  and  the  faith 
of  the  Church  of  England,  and  compelled  by  its  own 
course  of  argument  to  assign  to  our  Lord,  for  the  purposes 
of  His  teaching  in  the  Gospels,  a  limited  knowledge  only 
of  the  Old  Scriptures.  The  demand  of  this  assault  is 
that  Holy  Scripture  be  criticised  before  it  be  received. 
That  it  be  distinguished  into  parts  by  human  learning 
in  respect  of  the  credence  to  be  allowed  to  its  several 
books — that  credence  in  some  of  these  books,  or  parts 
of  books,  is  to  be  purchased  at  the  cost  of  dismissing 
it  as  unnecessary  in  the  case  of  other  books  of  the  same 
Word  of  God  ;  and  as  our  Lord  has  sealed  all  the  Old 
Scriptures  as  His  own  by  citation  and  reference  to  them 
as  His  own,  this  difficulty  in  the  way  of  man's  philosophy 
and  science  is  to  be  got  rid  of  by  pronouncing  that  our 
Lord's  knowledge  of  the  Old  Scriptures  was  only  a 
limited  knowledge — such  as  any  " educated"  Jew  of  His 
time  might  have. 

One  thing  has  always  to  be  repeated,  in  the  hope  of 


254 

its  finding  its  way  amongst  us  much  more  than  it  has 
hitherto  done.  That,  to  assign  to  our  Lord  in  His  teach- 
ing "  a  Hmited  knowledge  of  the  Old  Scriptures,"  is  to 
say  of  Him  nothing  else  than  this — That  in  His  teaching 
He  used  the  Old  Scriptures  as  the  record  of  historical 
fact ;  not  knowing  whether  they  contained  historical  fact. 

I  have  said  all  this  many  times,  but  it  cannot  be  said 
too  often,  either  to  him  who  says  it,  or  by  him  to  those 
who  are — as  he  is  himself— each  one  a  "little  child," 
called  to  the  obedience  of  love,  not  to  the  cavilling  and 
controversy  about  what  are  and  what  are  not,  integral 
parts  of  the  Book  of  God.  Channels  by  which  He- has 
seen  fit  to  convey  to  man  by  men's  hands  such  revelation 
of  Himself  as  it  has  seemed  good  to  Him  to  make — His 
promises — His  warnings.  It  is  enough  whereby  to  follow 
and  be  saved  ;  not  enough  to  satisfy  the  lust  of  the  pride 
of  life.  What  is  revealed  is  not  in  the  whole,  but  in  part 
only,  and  as  man's  nature  is  able  to  bear  it.  For  the 
understanding  of  The  Book  of  God  this  world  is  not  the 
place.  For  obeying  it  and  loving  it  it  is.  The  obedience 
of  the  little  child  is  the  key  that  unlocks  the  casket  of 
the  father's  love. 

If  in  Christ,  we  be  children  of  the  Church  of  England, 
let  us  "  hear  "  the  Church  of  England  ;  and  we  shall  never 
harm,  much  less  desert  her.  If  we  rejoice  in  being 
children  of  the  Church  of  England,  let  us  not  betray  her 
by  lip  service.  Above  all  things,  let  us  not  deceive  our- 
selves and  set  up  the  Idol  of  Policy  in  the  room  of  the 
spirit  and  the  action  of  Principle.  The  old  motto  "  incul- 
canda  repetenda"  may  be  allowed  to  be  applied  to  the 
present  case. 

For  the  true  humbleness  and  dependence  of  the  "little 
child "  as  revealed  in  the  old  Scripture  I  turn  to  the 
example  of  Job. 

"  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Satan,  Hast  thou  considered 
my  servant  Job ;  that  there  is  none  like  him  in  the 
earth,  a  perfect  and  an  upright  man,  one  that  feareth 
God  and  escheweth  evil .''  " 


255 
Now  human  perfectness  and  uprightness  may  be  greater 
in  some  case  or  cases  than  in  any  other,  and  yet  under 
further   trial,  if  God    see    fit,   admitting  of  growth    and 
increase.     This    was   the   case    in    the    instance    of   Job, 
whose  "  latter  end  the  Lord  blessed  more  than  his  begin- 
ning,"  as  a  sign  of  increased  perfectness.     So  we   read 
of  fob  when  taught  The  Truth  by  God  Himself,  bowing 
Himself  to  reason  with  His  creature,  and   having  cause 
to  know  thereby  what  men  had  tried  in  vain  to  persuade 
him  of,  because  they  "  darkened  counsel  with  words  with- 
out knowledge."     We  learn  here  what  the  true  position 
of  the  created  before  the  Creator  is.     We  learn  that  this 
is  that  not  only  the  created  cannot  make  one  of  the  least 
of  the  works  of  the  Creator,  but  that  it  is  not  in  his  power 
to  understand  how  that  one  is  made.     Let  us  hear  Job 
himself,  xlii.    1-6:-"  Then  Job  answered  the  Lord,  and 
said— I   know  that  Thou  canst  do  everything,  and  that 
no  thought  can  be  withholden  from  Thee.     Who   is  he 
that  hideth  counsel  without  knowledge  .?    therefore   have 
I  uttered  that  I  understood   not;    things  too  wonderful 
for  me,  which  I  knew  not.     Hear,  I   beseech  Thee,  and 
I  will  speak  :  I  will  demand  of  Thee,  and  declare  Thou 
unto  me.     I  have  heard  of  Thee  by  the  hearing  of  the 
ear :  but  now  mine  eye  seeth  Thee.     Wherefore  I  abhor 
myself,  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes." 

For  the  dependence  of  His  little  children  upon  God, 
I  turn  to  Daniel  the  Prophet.  I  turn  to  the  answer  of  the 
three  Servants  of  God,  c.  iii.  i6,  17,  18.  There  is  nothing 
higher  in  the  history  of  man  ;  nothing  nearer  to  the 
Gospel  itself  than  the  answer  of  the  "  three  holy  children  :  " 
"O  Nebuchadnezzar,  we  are  not  careful  to  answer  thee 
in  this  matter— (that  is,  we  are  ready  to  answer  thee 
at  once).  If  it  be  so,  our  God  Whom  we  serve  is  able 
to  deliver  us  from  the  burning  fiery  furnace,  and  he 
will  deliver  us  out  of  thine  hand,  O  King.  But  if  not, 
be  it  known  unto  thee,  O  King,  that  we  will  not  serve 
thy  gods,  nor  worship  the  golden  image  which  thou 
hast  set  up." 


256 

I  look  once  more  into  the  book  "  Lux  Mundi,"  Ed. 
X.  sec.  5,  p.  351,  down  to  "Astronomy,"  p.  356.  Here 
Job  and  Daniel  are  discredited,  together  with  many  other 
Books  of  the  Old  Scriptures,  in  the  literal  and  true  sense 
of  the  word  "  discredited." 

I  can  only  here  refer  you  to  the  pages  I  have  cited, 
and  pray  you  to  consider  what  the  seed  is  which  most 
surely  this  free  handling  of  the  Old  Scriptures  is  sowing 
broadcast  into  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the  English  people. 
The  fruit  of  that  seed  is  their  shaking  first  unto  tottering 
to  their  fall,  next  unto  ruin  of  their  dependence  upon  The 
Truth  of  Holy  Scripture. 

Dear  people  in  Christ,  let  it  not  be  with  us,  little 
children  in  Christ,  if  we  have  been  called  away,  set  free 
from  the  worship  of  wood  and  stone,  to  set  up  ourselves 
as  idols  for  ourselves  to  worship,  or  "  some  new  thing " 
which  easily  lays  hold  of  an  idle  or  unsettled  mind,  and 
unloving  heart,  and  make  an  idol  of  it,  bow  down  to,  and 
worship  it. 

I  ask  this  in  the  name  of  the  Apostle  whom  Jesus 
loved.  It  is  one  of  the  last  warnings  of  the  New  Scrip- 
tures. It  is  my  second  text.  "  And  St.  John  saw  these 
things  and  heard  them,  and  when  I  had  heard  and  seen, 
I  fell  down  to  worship  before  the  feet  of  the  angel  which 
showed  me  these  things.  Then  saith  he  unto  me,  See 
thou  do  it  not :  for  I  am  thy  fellow-servant,  and  of  thy 
brethren,  the  prophets,  and  of  them  which  keep  the 
sayings  of  this  book  :  Worship  God." 


SERMON    VI. 

Preached  in  Wells  Cathedral  on  Stmday,  Nov.  ij,  i8g2. 


ST.  JOHN  iv.  26. 
^''  Jesus  saith  unto  her,  '  /  that  speak  unto  thee  am  He.'' " 

This  is  the  last  but  two  of  14  records  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  The  Son  of  God,  Perfect  God  and  Perfect  Man, 
contained  in  the  four  first  chapters  of  St.  John's  Gospel. 

c.  i.     1,5.      The  record  of  St.  John  the  Apostle. 

c.  i.    6,  18.    The  record  of  St.  John  the  Baptist. 

c.  i.  19,  28.    The  record  of  St.  John  the  Baptist. 

c.  i.  29,  34.     The  record  of  St.  John  the  Baptist. 

c-  i-  35,  36.     The  record  of  St.  John  the  Baptist. 

c.  i.  41.  The  record  of  St.  Andrew. 

c.  i.  45.  The  record  of  St.  Philip. 

c.  i.  49.  The  record  of  St.  Nathaniel. 

c.  iii.  19,  21.  The  record  of  our  Lord  before  the  Jews. 

c.  iii.     I,  21.  The  record  oi  our  Lord  heiovQ  Nicodemus. 

c.  iii.  25,36.  The  record  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  before 
the  Jews. 

c.  iv.  26.  The  record  of  our  Lord  before  the  woman 

of  Samaria. 

c.  iv.  29.  The  record  of  the  woman  of  Samaria. 

c.  iv.  29.  The  record  of  the  Samaritans. 

The  record  of  the  Samaritans  is  remarkable  as  being 
one  of  the  two  places  in  which  the  words,  "  Saviour  of 
the  World,"  are  found  in  Holy  Scripture.  It  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  say  that  the  same  idea,  otherwise  expressed, 
is  to  be  found  times  very  many. 

With  this,  and  all  other  concurrent  testimonies  in  the 
hands  of  all   Christian   People,  it  is  painful  to  contrast 

s 


258 

the  present  tendency  of  a  large  portion  of  the  English 
mind  led  astray /r^//^  witJiin  to  doubt  and  question  about 
the  Perfect  Godhead  and  the  Perfect  Manhood  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ :  so  that  here  with  us 
successive  years,  instead  of  confirming  and  settling  the 
English  People,  and  the  many  dependencies  of  the 
English  Empire  in  the  Unity  of  the  Faith,  are  directed 
much  rather  into  perpetual  doubting  and  inquiry  by 
learned  men,  where  it  was  least  to  be  looked  for.  The 
enquiry  raised  being  this — what  was  after  all  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Perfect  God  and  Perfect  Man  here  upon 
earth  ?  The  main  gist  and  purpose  of  these  doubts  and 
inquiries  being  the  weakening  the  value  of  the  testimony 
of  Christ  to  "  the  Old  Scriptures,"  for  the  end  of  enabling 
men  to  believe  in  portions  of  the  Old  Scriptures  by 
allowing  them  the  liberty  of  disbelieving  in  other  portions. 

It  was  seen  that  this  could  not  be  done  but  by  dis- 
crediting the  Divine  Authority  of  the  Saviour  of  the 
World  in  respect  of  the  Old  Scriptures,  and  restricting 
it  within  the  limits  of  the  Jew  of  His  time.  Therefore 
it  is  that,  as  a  necessary  requirement  of  the  New  Critic 
of  the  day  upon  which  to  maintain  the  destructive  argu- 
ments, called  by  him  the  "  disencumberment "  of  faith 
in  Christ,  English  People,  old  and  young,  high  and  low, 
rich  and  poor,  are  being  taught  now  that  they  need  not 
trouble  themselves  about  believing  the  Divine  Authority 
of  more  of  the  Old  Scriptures  than  it  pleases  them  to 
accept. 

I  know  that  I  have  said  all  this  many  times,  and  have 
replied  to  it  so  far  as  it  has  been  in  my  power  to  do. 
But  I  would  ask  you,  dear  People  in  Christ,  in  taking 
leave  of  this  matter  before  you — the  worst  and  darkest 
blot  upon  Engljsh  Religion  that  in  a  long  life  I  have 
lived  to  see — Is  there  not  a  cause  ?  I  can  say  truly  that 
the  fear  of  and  shrinking  from  this  teaching,,  in  its  source, 
in  its  character,  in  its  effects,  is  never  away  from  me  ; 
and  though  my  power  of  persuading  others  to  look  more 
closely  into  it  may  be  little,  the  duty  of  bearing  testimony 


259 

to  Christ,  Perfect  God  and  Perfect  Man,  the  Saviour  of 
the  World,  abides  with  every  one  of  us  to  our  last  breath. 
But,  having  said  this,  I  am  not  going  into  any  detail  of 
argument.  It  is  becoming  the  fashion  of  the  time  to 
approach  everything,  Divine  or  human,  as  admitting  of 
discussion.  But,  under  this  circumstance,  there  are  many 
more  of  us  than  is  commonly  supposed  who  will  not  have 
"  Holy  Scripture,"  and  the  Lord's  Seal  upon  it,  discussed 
at  all  in  any  part  of  its  substance  and  authority,  seeing 
that  they  are  the  only  one  ground  upon  which  faith  may 
be  built.  The  Old  Scriptures  and  the  New,  as  given  unto 
men  to  the  end  of  time  by  the  Church — yea,  and  unto  the 
angels — hear  St.  Paul :  "  To  the  intent  that  now  unto  the 
principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly  places,  might  be 
known  by  the  Church  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God " 
(Ephes.  iii.  lo). 

Discussion,  then,  in  matters  of  The  Faith,  more  par- 
ticularly in  respect  of  the  Unity  of  the  Faith,  must  be 
most  strictly  watched  on  the  side  of  those  who  would 
defend  and  maintain  The  Faith,  lest  they  should  any  way 
compromise  the  principle  upon  which  it  behoves  the 
maintainer  and  defender  of  The  Faith  to  stand.  The 
principle  is  that  of  stating  much  more  than  arguing — 
men  argue  on  the  ground  that  it  is  possible  that  both 
sides  may  be  more  or  less,  or  wholly,  right.  But  this 
is  not  the  case  with  argument  upon  The  Faith.  There 
is  but  one  Faith,  and  that  given — by  whom,  by  what 
given  ?  Given  of  God  "  by  the  Church."  The  Churchman 
therefore  states  what  the  Church  tells  him.  He  may  not 
argue  upon  it,  as  if  there  were  room  for  doubt  at  all. 
Holy  Scripture  itself  does  not  argue  upon  The  Faith — 
it  states  and  insists.  It  is  the  voice  of  God  speaking 
to  man — not  a  voice  which  can  mean  a  thing  and  the 
opposite  of  the  thing  ;  it  has  to  be  settled  which  by 
argument.  The  Church,  by  the  ordinance  of  God,  under 
guidance  of  The  Spirit,  has  settled  all  things  necessary 
to  salvation.  Two  thousand  years  after  Christ  is  surely 
not  the  time  for   men  to  be  asking  "  What  is  Truth  ? " 


26o 

Death  may  come  before  the  knowledge,  which  is  always 
at  hand  by  The  Church. 

"  Endeavouring  to  keep  the  unity  of  The  Spirit  in  the 
bond  of  Peace."  Words  beside  these  are  not  needed. 
They  supply  in  themselves  the  best  argument,  better  than 
any  that  man  can  make,  for  being  content  to  re-state 
"  Holy  Scripture "  rather  than  apply  ourselves  to  argue 
one  with  another  about  The  Truth  of  God.  There  is  no 
promise  of  the  giving  of  any  other  than  that  which  has 
been  given.  There  is  not  "  another  Gospel " — another 
rather  than  that  which  has  been  given  unto  the  end 
of  time.  The  Gospel  bearing  the  testimony  of  our  Lord 
to  the  Old  Scriptures,  making  no  discrimination  between 
this  or  that  portion  of  them — accepting  all  alike  as  the 
gift  of  God.  The  golden  chain  between  the  two  cannot 
want  any  other  words  of  man  to  commend  it  than  the 
words  of  St.  Paul  to  Timothy,  his  dearly  beloved  son  : 
"  That  from  a  child  thou  hast  known  the  Holy  Scriptures 
which  are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation  through 
faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus."  He  is  speaking  of  "  The 
Old  Scriptures,"  even  as  our  Lord  Himself  to  the  Jews 
(St.  John  v.  39) :  "  Search  the  Scriptures  ;  for  in  them  ye 
think  ye  have  eternal  life :  and  they  are  they  which 
testify  of  Me." 

I  turn  now  to  the  Woman  of  Samaria  at  the  Well, 
bearing,  in  her  sin  and  ignorance,  testimony  to  The 
Messiah :  "  Come,  see  a  man  which  told  me  all  things 
that  ever  I  did :  is  not  this  the  Christ  ? "  She  had  come 
to  draw  water  at  Jacob's  Well,  and  there  she  had  found 
Christ. 

The  Divine  Nature,  having  taken  to  itself,  for  the  sav- 
ing of  the  world  in  the  Mystery  of  the  Incarnation,  the 
human  nature  sinless,  was,  nevertheless,  in  sorrow  and 
suffering,  when  the  Son  of  God  came  in  the  Flesh,  as 
those  are  who  are  His.  Hear  St.  Paul  (2  Cor.  xi.  27), 
speaking  of  himself,  "  In  weariness  and  painfulness,  in 
watchings  often ;  in  hunger  and  thirst ;  in  fastings 
often,  in  cold  and  nakedness  " — yea,  and  how  much  more. 


26 1 


how  infinitely  more,  than  St.  Paul,  or  any  others  greatest 
amon-  the  Saints,  could  say  of  himself  or  others,  because 
of  The  Mystery  of  the  Godhead  and  the  Manhood  :  of  the 
union  between  that  which  could  not  suffer  and  that  which 
could  and  did  suffer,  as  no  other  in  the  form  of  man  has 
or  could  suffer.     All  this  again  for  man  fallen  away  from 
God  in  his  inherited  nature  ;  inherited  as  the  curse  of  the 
pride  in  man's  chief  gift,  the  pride  which  St.  John  calls 
"the  pride  of  life."     The  pride  of  the   reasonmg   power, 
the  chief  gift  of  the   natural    man  ;    the   subordmate   gift 
of  the  spiritual  man.     That  pride  was  evoked  in  the  first 
and  governing  temptation  in  the  garden  of  Eden.     The 
temptation  to   doubt  God.     "Yea,  hath  God  said?     _  It 
was  reserved  by  the  Tempter,  as  the  last  in  order  of  time 
(but  the  first  in  power  over  the  heart  and  mind  of  man), 
on   the  pinnacle  of  the  Temple  :    "  If  thou   be  the   Son 
of  God  cast  Thyself  from  hence:  for  it  is  written,  He  shall 
give  His  angels  charge  over  Thee,  to  keep  Thee,  and  in 
their  hands  they  shall  bear  Thee  up,  lest  at  any  time  Thou 
dash  Thy  foot  against  a  stone.     And  Jesus,  answering  him, 
said   unto  him.  It  is  said  (Deut.  vi.   i6).  Thou  shalt  not 
tempt  the  Lord  thy  God  :  and  when  the  devil  had  ended 
all  the  temptation,  He  departed  from  Him,  for  a  season 
(St.  Luke  iv.  13). 

He  said  and  stood  : 
Then  Satan,  filled  with  amazement,  fell. 

Milton's  Paradise  Regained. 

Our  Lord  says  afterwards  to  His  Apostles,  "Ye  are  they 
which  have  continued  with  Me  in  My  temptations"  (St. 

Luke  xxii.  28).  1.1. 

The  woman  at  the  well  is  the  type  of  many  shades 
of  quasi-religious  character.  I  state  them  in  their  order  : 
First,  there  is  the  type  of  public  separation  of  the  two 
tribes  and  the  ten  (v.  9),  the  separation  of  faith  and 
worship  caused  by  "The  sin  of  Jeroboam,  who  made 
Israel  to  sin."  Unity  of  worship  in  the  twelve  tribes  had 
ceased  for  nearly  a  thousand  years.     This  had  governed 

S  2 


262 

all  the  life,  public  and  private,  of  the  two  peoples,  and 
"  the  Jews  had  no  dealings  with  the  Samaritans."  Hence 
the  call  of  our  Lord  was  more  than  strange  to  the  woman, 
and  when  told  of  "  the  living  water  "  she  had  no  thought 
of  anything  beyond  the  earthly  life.  There  is,  neverthe- 
less, a  trace  of  something  of  a  higher  nature  beginning 
to  steal  its  way  into  her  heart  and  mind  in  v.  15  :  "Sir, 
give  me  this  water  that  I  thirst  not,  neither  come  hither 
to  draw." 

Our  Lord  tries  her  again  more  closely.  He  appeals 
to  her  consciousness  of  sin  :  "  Go  call  thy  husband,  and 
come  hither."  The  woman  confesses,  "  I  have  no  hus- 
band." Then  our  Lord,  receiving  her  confession,  "Thou 
hast  well  said,"  waits  for  her  reply. 

Secondly,  there  is  the  type  of  some  moving  of  the  heart 
to  a  sense  of  need  of  help.  Thirdly,  there  is  the  type 
of  the  failing  and  disappearing  of  the  move  towards 
repentance  and  confession  of  our  sin,  with  the  desire 
to  hide  under  other  colours  the  darkness  of  our  sin. 

The  woman,  acknowledging  our  Lord  for  a  prophet, 
seeks,  nevertheless,  to  escape  from  the  inward  searching 
of  her  sinful  life  by  implying  that  she  would  be  thankful 
for  counsel  respecting  the  true  place  of  worship,  whether 
it  were  Jerusalem  or  Mount  Gerizim. 

Our  Lord  answers  her  in  the  words  of  vv.  21,  22,  23, 
24.  The  woman,  overwhelmed  and  confounded,  confesses 
her  ignorance  and  her  want  of  light,  v.  25,  is  drawn 
onward  by  some  inward  sense  that  she  was  in  a  holy 
presence — our  Lord  declares,  bears  record  of  Himself 
Upon  this,  there  is  the  fourth  type  of  a  call  superseding 
the  satisfying  of  earthly  need.  The  woman  forgets  her 
earthly  need,  leaves  her  waterpot,  goes  her  way  to  the  city, 
and  says,  "  Come,  see  a  man  which  told  me  all  things  that 
ever  I  did.  Is  not  this  the  Christ?"  Then  they  went 
out  of  the  city  and  came  unto  Him.  The  verses  that 
follow,  31  —  8,  I  must  pass  by  here,  filled  as  they  are 
with  holy  teaching,  and  proceed  to  vv.  39 — 42.  These 
verses  should  be  carefully  studied  side  by  side  with  the 


instances  of  the  holy  charity  of  our  Lord  towards  the 
Samaritans,  and  of  His  choice  of  them  for  examples:  on 
the  other  hand,  there  is  no  allowance  for  the  question 
of  breach  of  Unity. 

For  ourselves  then,  dear  people  in  Christ,  for  ourselves, 
and  for  all  whom  the  providence  of  God  places  in  our 
hands,  either  of  necessity,  as  being  our  own  children, 
or  the  children  of  others  committed  to  our  charge  and 
care,  and  this  more  particularly  day  by  day  in  the 
extreme  danger  coming  out  of  what  is  called  "  the  spirit 
of  our  time,"  what  shall  we  do  ?  It  was  the  first  cry  in 
Jerusalem  when,  in  answer  to  St.  Peter :  "Therefore  let  all 
the  house  of  Israel  know  assuredly,  that  God  hath  made 
that  same  Jesus,  whom  ye  hath  crucified,  both  Lord  and 
Christ."  "  They  were  pricked  in  their  heart,  and  said  unto 
Peter  and  the  rest  of  the  Apostles,  Men  and  brethren, 
what  shall  we  do?"  (Acts  ii.  36,  37).  Aye  indeed,  what 
shall  we  do?  It  is  by  doing  that  we  are  saved,  not  by 
thought,  conviction,  resolve  only.  Salvation  were  easy,  if 
thought,  conviction,  resolve  were  all  is  that  is  commanded. 
But  it  is  not  all,  nor  the  thousandth  part  of  it.  We  have 
threescore  years  and  ten  wherein  to  be  doing  for  ourselves, 
for  others,  for  our  life,  for  theirs.  Men  and  brethren, 
what  shall  we  do?  What  shall  we  do  for  this  Church 
of  Christ  in  England — of  England?  I  will  venture  to 
make  the  answer :  "  Endeavour  to  keep  the  Unity  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace." 

It  is  said  the  strife  in  "  endeavouring  to  keep  the  Unity 
of  the  Spirit"  is  a  strife  that  lies  among  the  deepest 
heartstrings  of  men.  I  know  it  is.  But  if  any  man  say 
that  therefore  it  cannot  be  carried  on  in  the  bond  of 
peace,  I  may  not  allow  the  conclusion.  God  hath  not 
given  us  two  chief  things  to  be  done  in  this  our  life  ;  two 
things  to  be  done  for  the  love,  and  in  the  power  of  Christ : 
two  the  greatest  things — of  all  our  service — two  things, 
neither  of  which  can  be  done  without  daily  abiding  re- 
pentance, faith,  hope,  charity.  God  hath  not  given  us 
two  things  to  be  done  which  we  cannot  do.     He  hath 


264 

spoken  to  us  His  eternal  Word — endeavouring  to  keep  the 
Unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.  Men  and 
brethren,  what  shall  we  do?  We  will  make  answer — The 
Spirit  helping  us,  we  endeavour  to  keep  the  Unity  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.  The  Apostle  says  "  en- 
deavouring"— that  is  giving  our  life  to.  We  may  be  able 
to  do  little :  the  amount  is  not  the  question.  The  heart 
and  mind  in  which  it  is  undertaken  as  the  chief  business 
of  our  life,  this  is  the  question.  The  mercy  of  God,  the 
wisdom  of  God,  which  knoweth  all  things,  knows  what 
Spirit  we  are  of  Let  us  trust  Christ  to  help  us  by  the 
Spirit.  To  whom  else  can  we  go  ?  Has  He  not  the 
Words  of  Eternal  life  .'' 

Is  it  meant  then,  some  may  ask,  that  we  are  to  consort 
and  communicate  with  those  who  are  rending  asunder  the 
Unity  of  the  Faith  as  the  Church  has  delivered  it  into 
our  hands  to  keep  and  teach .''  There  is  a  reply  to  this 
in  the  words  of  the  same  Apostle,  who  bids  us  endeavour 
to  keep  the  Unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace, 

"  Now,  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  mark  them  which  cause 
divisions  and  offences  among  you,  contrary  to  the  doctrine 
which  ye  have  learned,  and  avoid  them."  Noting  such, 
for  caution's  sake,  is  not  ill-will — avoiding  them  is  not  ill- 
will.  Agreement  is  impossible  in  the  case.  The  case 
supposed  is  not  one  where  there  is  room  for  discussion. 
It  is  a  case  in  which  Eternal  Truth  is  committed  to  the 
Church,  is  abided  by  as  being  of  God  on  the  one  side — 
discredited  or  explained  away  on  the  other  side — by  what 
process,  for  what  purpose,  under  what  conditions,  it 
matters  not  at  all.  There  is  no  room  for  discussion 
where  men  start  from  opposite  poles  of  thought.  It 
is  only  foolishness  to  attempt  to  discuss  when  one  side 
limits  the  province  of  Reason,  setting  a  boundary  between 
it  and  the  province  of  the  Mysteries  of  God,  and  the  other 
side  walks  in  among  the  Mysteries,  and  handles  themx 
to  see  what  their  value  may  be.  Let  us  pray  daily  to 
be  kept  from  a  spirit  like  this.  Let  us  pray  no  less 
that  what  we  would   strive   by  the    Spirit  to   do   for  the 


265 

defence  and  maintenance  of  the  Truth  of  God,  for  "the 
Unity  of  the  Spirit,"  may  have  no  stain  upon  it  from  the 
bitterness  of  conflict  which  the  Tempter  is  ever  labouring 
to  pour  into  the  hearts  of  men. 

Dear   brethren,  what  is  there   not    everywhere  around 
us  that  does  not  speak  of  the  Unity  of  the  Spirit  and 
of  the   bond   of  peace?     This    beautiful    church    of  St. 
Andrew   the   Apostle,   the   centre   of  the    Unity   of  the 
diocese— the  Palace   of  the   Bishop— the   houses   of  the 
Dean     and    Chapter— the    Vicar's    close,    the    Training 
College— everywhere   around    us.     When   we   leave    this 
city,  church  after  church  lifting  its  head  to  the  Heaven 
where  all  is   Unity.     Hard  by  the   churches,  the   house 
of  the  priest  of  the  parish  ;  inside  the  churches,  the  Font 
and    the    Altar.      The    Holy    Bible    and    the    Book    of 
Common  Prayer  and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments. 
All  cry  aloud  to  us  with  one  voice.     "  There  is  one  body 
and  one  Spirit,  even  as  ye  are  called  in  one  hope  of  your 
calling :  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  GOD  and 
Father  of  all,  who  is  above  all,  and  through  all,  and  in 
you  all."     Is  it  not  then  for  each  one  and  all  of  us  to  live 
fighting  the  good  fight  of  faith,  in  love,  in  the  simplicity 
of  "  little  children  "  before  GoD,  in  power  and  in  peace- 
endeavouring   to   keep    the    Unity   of  the    Spirit   in    the 
Bond  of  Peace  ?     Ephesians  iv.  3,  6. 


lC)viutcb  b\:  5amcs  iPavUcv  an&  do-,  Cvfiwn  Jtjart,  ®ifO(», 


:B^  tbe  same  Hutbor. 

Third  Edition,  8w.,  cloth,  price  \2S. 

NOTES   OF   MY    LIFE,   1805— 1878. 

Oxford   and   London  :    James    Parker   and  Co. 


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